Becoming a mathematics teacher educator: perspectives from Kazakhstan and Australia

Mathematics education is well established or growing in many countries around the world, but less is known about it and those who are involved in it from countries, such as Kazakhstan, that were part of the United Soviet Socialist Republics. In this chapter, we contribute to this gap in the field by addressing mathematics education and development of mathematics teacher educators in Kazakhstan. Specifically, we focus on the career paths of some Kazakhstan mathematics teacher educators and contrast them with career pathways identified in Australia. We use Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model to compare how influences at the macro-, meso- and micro-systems levels play out differently in these two countries and affect the experience of becoming a mathematics teacher educator.