Truth, Lies, and Videotapes: Embracing the Contraries of Mathematics Teaching

As videos of teaching become increasingly available and used as tools for analyzing classroom practice, it is important for researchers and practitioners to reflect on the nature and purposes of video representations of teaching. Too often classroom videos are made and viewed in ways that narrow interpretations about the nature and quality of instruction. This article discusses and illustrates a different perspective for making and working with videos of teaching, one that embraces rather than rejects contradictions in the work of teaching. This approach seeks to disrupt researchers and practitioners’ tendencies to generate and use overly evaluative frameworks and language when describing and analyzing teaching practice. Implications for researchers and practitioners of teaching and teacher education are discussed.