Changes in certain educational practices may be influenced by the initiative of pre-service teachers and by processes arising from their professional practice. This article aims to identify and characterize a problem related to teaching practices aimed at fostering critical citizenship in students through school mathematics, working with a group of pre-service mathematics teachers. The research was conducted using a qualitative approach, employing a diagnostic action research method, with five pre-service mathematics teachers who voluntarily participated from a Mathematics Education Bachelor’s program at a university in Colombia. The reflections generated by the participants revealed two main issues in their teaching practice. The first is curricular, showing a limited understanding and lack of knowledge regarding the normative curricular elements necessary for the implementation of school mathematics teaching and learning. The second is experiential, uncovering a lack of theoretical grounding to systematically and reflectively use principles, procedures, and tools in teaching and learning processes. These findings underscore the need to promote reflection during initial teacher education so that future teachers can begin their professional development in an appropriate manner and critically examine their teaching practice.
Alarcón et al. (2026) studied this question.