Ep42: Tom Mahoney, Teacher & Educational Researcher

Today my guest is Tom Mahoney, a Teacher and Educational Researcher. In this episode, we explore Tom’s diverse teaching roles related to both Mathematics and Psychology. Tom recounts his previous studies as background to his current PhD research aims which relate to reflexivity and how teachers perceive themselves. Tom seeks to understand the different values and beliefs, ideologies, and philosophies that teachers bring to the classroom, where these might have originated, and how this might, in turn, influence their teaching role. We chat about the various factors that influence classroom dynamics including trust, power, reflection, and teacher agency. Tom reflects on dominant ideologies, standardised - or cookie-cutter - classroom approaches, belief systems that see education as a service, addressing individual and collective student needs, and the role of teachers in making professional judgements in their own classroom contexts. Tom offers some deeper considerations related to the broader and more holistic purpose of teaching within social and collective educational systems. Links: https://tommahoneyedu.wordpress.com/ https://twitter.com/TomMahoneyEdu