Discourses on mathematics and mathematical ability of support teachers in Italy

We study essays about mathematics and mathematical ability written by preservice support teachers in Italy, which we analyze discursively in relation to their life experiences and career aims. Overall, while the participants articulate a view of mathematics as a generally worthy, satisfying, and useful form of activity, they nonetheless report a negative personal relationship with it typically after primary school. This is articulated either in connection to a bad experiences with a teacher, as linked to mathematics' challenging growing abstractness, as well as in connection to the participants' own perceived lack of mathematical predisposition or ability. As to the latter, the participants typically depict it as having both an innate and an acquired education-dependent component. After presenting the results of the analysis, we discuss them in view of broader systemic issues connected to the support of the teaching and learning of mathematics in Italy.