Spaces to discuss mathematics: communities of practice on an online discussion board

In theories of learning that adopt a situated stance to knowledge the notion of identity is vital; how learners position themselves in relation to, and are mutually positioned by, the situation within which they are learning will have a strong bearing on the learning outcomes. One of the challenges for learning mathematics in school is that learners position themselves, and are positioned, as pupils rather than as mathematicians. This paper focuses on discussion boards designed for secondary school mathematics students, and we use Wenger's (1998) model of communities of practice, building on earlier work by the authors (Back and Pratt 2007; Pratt and Kelly 2007) in which ‘idealised communities’ are constructed and used, to consider a case study of one participant who engages in developing his identity as a mathematician doing mathematics, as well his identity as a learner and a teacher of mathematics.