Dr. Brent Davis is Professor and David Robitaille Chair
in Mathematics Education in the Department of Curriculum
and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia.
Prior to his appointment at the UBC in August 2006,
he held positions at the University of Alberta (2001-2006),
York University in Toronto (1997-2001), and UBC (1994-1997).
He completed his PhD in mathematics education and curriculum
studies at the University of Alberta in 1994, under
the supervision of Thomas E. Kieren. Through the 1980s,
before undertaking graduate studies, he was a classroom
teacher in northern Alberta, specializing in middle
school mathematics.
Dr. Davis teaches courses at the undergraduate and
graduate level that are developed around the educational
relevance of recent developments in the cognitive and
complexity sciences. A sense of the conceptual influences
and emphases in these courses might be gleaned from
the http://www.complexityandeducation.ca
website, aspects of which were developed in courses
taught by Davis.
Dr. Davis is the author of two books on pedagogy and
co-author of two books on learning, teaching, and research.
He has authored and co-authored many articles in the
areas of mathematics learning and teaching, curriculum
theory, teacher education, and action research.
Dr. Davis is also very active as an editor. He is
currently Editor of For the
Learning of Mathematics. He has edited or co-edited
seven books of proceedings and is a former co-editor
of JCT: Journal of Curriculum Theorizing and
Complicity:
An International Journal of Complexity and Education.
Research Interests
Brent Davis's research is oriented by recent research
into learning, particularly as informed by developments
in ecology, cognitive science, and complexity science.
The most comprehensive expression of his interests and
the products of his research is the co-authored (with
Dr. Dennis Sumara and Dr. Rebecca Luce-Kapler) book,
Engaging Minds: Changing Teaching in Complex Times
(2nd edn., Routledge, 2008). This text is designed to
involve readers in a comprehensive exploration of teaching
and learning. It prompts examinations of the complexities
of learning, pedagogy, and schooling while refusing
simplistic notions or irresolvable tensions that sometimes
infuse popular debates. Engaging Minds interprets new
perspectives in learning theory into a coherent account
aimed at pre-service and in-service teachers.
Recent Publications
Books
| Davis, Brent, Dennis J. Sumara, and
Rebecca Luce-Kapler. (2008). Engaging Minds: Changing
teaching in complex times. New York and London:
Routledge. [See
PDF of Chapter 1.] |
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| Davis, Brent,
Dennis Sumara. (2006). Complexity and education:
Inquiries into learning, teaching, and research.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [See
PDF of the Preface.]
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| Davis, Brent. (2004). Inventions
of teaching: A genealogy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates. [See
PDF of Chapter 1.]
|
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| Davis, Brent. (1996). Teaching Mathematics:
Toward a Sound Alternative. New York: Garland
Publishing.[See
PDF of Introduction.]
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Journal Articles
Davis, B. (in press). Complexity and education: Some vital
simultaneities. Educational Philosophy and Theory.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (in press). Subjunctive spaces
of curriculum: On the importance of eccentric knowledge. Curriculum
Matters.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2007). Complexity
science and education: Reconceptualizing the teacher's role
in learning. Interchange, 38(1), 53-67.
Sumara, D., & Davis, B. (2006). Correspondence,
coherence, complexity: Theories of learning and their influences
on literary composition. English Teaching: Practice
and Critique, 5(2), 34-55.
Davis, B., & Simmt, E. (2006). Mathematics-for-teaching:
An ongoing investigation of the mathematics that teachers
(need to) know. Educational Studies in Mathematics,
61(3), 293–319.
Iftody, T., Sumara, D., & Davis, B. (2006). Consciousness
and literary experience: A case for a biocultural theory of
learning. Language and Literacy, 8(1). Available
at http://www.langandlit.ualberta.ca/archivesDate.html.
Luce-Kapler, R., Dobson, T., Sumara, D., Davis, B., &
Iftody, T. (in press). Consciousness and literary experience.
2006 Yearbook of the National Reading Conference.
Sumara, D., Davis, B., & Iftody, T. (2006) Normalizing
literary responses in the teacher education classroom.
Changing English, 13(1), 55–67.
Sumara, D., Davis, B., Filax, G., & Walsh, S. (2006).
Performing an archive of feeling: Experiences of normalizing
structures in teaching and teacher education. Journal
of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 2(2), 173–214.
Davis, B. (2005). Trois attitudes dans la recherche en éducation:
autour de “l'explicite", de "l'implicite"
et de la "complicité". Revue des Sciences
de l'Éducation, XXXI(2), 397–416.
Davis, B. (2005). Emergent insights into mathematical intelligence
from cognitive science. delta-K: Journal of the Mathematics
Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, 42(2),
10–19.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2005). Challenging
images of knowing: Complexity
science and educational research. International Journal
of Qualitative Studies in Education, 18(3), 305-321.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2005). Complexity
science and educational action research. Educational
Action Research, 13(3), 453–464.
Davis, B. (2003). Toward a pragmatics of complex transformation.
Journal of the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies.
Online
Davis, B., & Simmt, E. (2003). Understanding
learning systems: Mathematics teaching and complexity science.
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 34(2),
137-167.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2003). Listening
to how you’re heard: on translations, mistranslations,
and really bad mistranslations (A response to Stuart McNaughton
and Nicholas Barbules). Teaching Education, 14(2),
149-152.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2003). Why
aren’t they getting this? Working through the regressive
myths of constructivist pedagogy. Teaching Education.
14(2), 123-140.
Davis, B. (2002). It ain’t right: An adventure in shaping
understandings. Language and Literacy, 4(1). Online
Luce-Kapler, R., Sumara, D., & Davis, B. (2002). Rhythms
of knowing:
Toward an ecological theory of learning in action research.
Educational Action Research, 10(3), 353-372.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2002). Constructivist
discourses and the field of education: Problems and possibilities.
Educational Theory, 52(4), 409-428.
Towers, J. & Davis, B. (2002). Structuring
occasions. Educational Studies in Mathematics,
49: 313-340.
Davis, B. (2001). Why
teach mathematics to all students? For the Learning
of Mathematics, 21(1), 17-24.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2001). Learning
communities: Understanding the workplace as a complex system.
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 92,
85-95.
Davis, B., Sumara, D., & Laidlaw, L. (2001). Canadian
identity and curriculum theory: An ecological postmodern perspective.
Canadian Journal of Education 26(2), 144-163.
Davis, B. & Sumara, D. (2000). Curriculum
forms: On the assumed shapes of knowing and knowledge.
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(6), 821-845.
Davis, B. (1999).
Basic irony: Examining the foundations of school mathematics
with preservice teachers. Journal of Mathematics Teacher
Education, 2(1), 25-48.
Davis, B. & Sumara, D.J. (1999). From complexity to complicity:
Reading complexity theory as a moral and ethical imperative.
JCT: Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 15(2), 19-38.
Sumara, D.J. & Davis, B. (1999).
Interrupting heteronormativity: Toward a queer curriculum.
Curriculum Inquiry, 29(2), 191-208.
Simmt, E., & Davis, B. (1998). Fractal
cards: A space for exploration in geometry and discrete mathematics.
Mathematics Teacher, 91 (February): 102-108.
Sumara, D., Davis, B., & van der Wey, D. (1998). The
pleasure of thinking. Language Arts, 76(2), 135-143.
Sumara, D., & Davis, B. (1997). Enactivist
theory and community learning:
Toward a complexified understanding of action research.
Educational Action Research, 5(3), 403-422.
Davis, B. (1997). Listening
for differences: An evolving conception of mathematics teaching.
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 28(3),
355-376.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (1997). Cognition,
complexity, and teacher education. Harvard Educational
Review, 67(1), 105-125.
Davis B., Sumara, D.J., & Kieren, T.E. (1996). Cognition,
co-emergence, curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies,
28(2), 151-169.
Kieren, T.E., Davis, B., & Mason, R. (1996). Fraction
flags: Learning from children to help children learn.
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 2(1),
14-19.
Davis, B. (1995). Hearing otherwise and thinking differently:
Enactivism and school mathematics. (Recipient of the 1994
T.T. Aoki Award). JCT: An Interdisciplinary Journal of
Curriculum Studies, 11(4), 31-56.
Davis, B. (1995). Why
teach mathematics? Mathematics education and enactivist theory.
For the Learning of Mathematics, 15(2), 2-8.
Davis, B. (1994). Mathematics
teaching: Moving from telling to listening. Journal
of Curriculum and Supervision, 9(3), 267-283.
Selected Book Chapters
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (forthcoming). Curriculum and
constructivism. In B. McGaw, E. Baker, & P. Peterson (Eds.),
International Encyclopedia of Education (3rd edition).
Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (in press). Curriculum forms:
On the assumed shapes of knowing and knowledge. In I. Westbury
and G. Milburn, Rethinking Schooling: Twenty-five years
of the Journal of Curriculum Studies. London: Blackwell.
Davis, B. (in press). Expanding the space of the possible:
Understanding knowledge, learning, and teaching as nested
and recursively elaborative processes. In B. Depres, Complexity
Thinking within Education: A Practitioner's Handbook.
New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
Davis., B, & Sumara, D. (2007). Complexity science, ecology,
and enactivism. In J. Kincheloe & R.A. Horn, Jr. (Eds.),
The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology (pp.
464-473). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Davis, B. (2005). Interrupting frameworks: Critical inquiries
into the geometries of epistemology and curriculum. In M.
Jayne Fleener, William Doll, Jr., & John St. Julien, Chaos,
complexity, curriculum culture: A conversation (pp. 46-69).
New York: Peter Lang.
Davis, B, & Sumara, D. (2004). The hidden geometry of
curriculum. In Richard Edwards and Robin Usher (Eds.), Spaciality,
Curriculum and Learning (pp. 42-65). London: Information
Age Press.
Filax, G., Sumara, D., Davis, B., & Shogan, D. (2004).
Queer theory: Lesbian and gay approaches. In B. Somekj &
C. Lewin (Eds.), Research methods in the social sciences
(pp. 281-289). London: Sage.
Begg, A., Davis, B., & Bramald, R. (2003). Obstacles
to the dissemination of mathematics education research. In
A.J. Bishop, M.A. Clements, C. Keitel, J. Kilpatrick, &
F.K.S. Leung (Eds.), Second International Handbook of Mathematics
Education (pp. 591-632). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publisher.
Davis, B. & Sumara, D. (2000). Another queer theory:
Reading complexity theory as a moral and ethical imperative.
In S. Talburt & S.R. Steinberg (Eds.), Thinking queer:
Sexuality, culture, and education (pp. 105-130). New York:
Peter Lang.
Davis, B. & Sumara, D.J. (2000). Corporatism and Curriculum.
In D. Gabbard (Ed.), Knowledge and Power in the Global
Economy (pp. 173-180). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Davis, B. (1999). Hearing otherwise and thinking differently:
Enactivism and school mathematics. In W.F. Pinar (Ed.), Contemporary
Curriculum Discourses, 2nd edition (pp. 323-344). New
York: Peter Lang. [Republished from JCT: An Interdisciplinary
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 11(4), 31-56.]
Davis, B. & Sumara, D. (1999). Cognition, complexity,
and teacher education. In Ethan Mintz & John T. Yun (Eds.),
The Complex World of Teaching: Perspectives from Theory
and Practice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univeristy Press.
[Republished from Harvard Educational Review, 67(1), 105-125.]
Sumara, D.J. & Davis, B. (1999). Inventing a more interesting
subject. In M. Aswell Doll & M. Morris (Eds.), How
We Work (pp. 55-70). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Davis B. & Sumara, D.J. (1998). Thinking about thinking:
Maxine Greene on cognition. In W.F. Pinar (Ed.), The Passionate
Mind of Maxine Greene: "I am ... not yet" (pp.
247-253). London: Falmer.
Sumara, D.J. & Davis, B. (1998). Telling tales of surprise.
In W.F. Pinar (Ed.), Queer Theories in Education (pp.
197-219). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sumara, D.J. & Davis, B. (1998). Unskinning curriculum.
In W.F. Pinar (Ed.), Curriculum: New Identities for the
Field (pp. 75-91). New York, Garland Publishing.
Sumara, D.J. & Davis, B. (1997). Enlarging the space
of the possible: Complexity, complicity, and action research
practices. In T. Carson and D.J. Sumara (Eds.), Action
Research as a Living Practice (pp. 299-312). New York,
Peter Lang Publishing.
Projects
Mathematics-for-Teaching: A study
of teachers' mathematical knowledge and its relationship to
classroom learning (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada) Brent Davis, Principal Researcher;
Dennis Sumara and Elaine Simmt, Co-Researchers
The project is located in a geographically dispersed
rural school district in Alberta. The research method is based
on extended, group-based engagements in which teachers are
invited to work on shared interpretive and problem-solving
tasks. These tasks are developed around mathematical topics
that are selected by the teachers themselves and that are
designed in ways that allow us, as researchers, to map out
some of the contours of their explicit (expressed) and tacit
(enacted) mathematical knowledge. The research method is oriented
by two key assumptions. First, we problematize the commonplace
belief that the individual learner is the proper unit of analysis
for classroom phenomena. Because mathematics-for-teaching
always occurs in contexts that involve others, we structure
our investigations in ways that enable learners to contribute
to and draw on the knowledge of the collective. Second, we
assume that efforts to study teachers' knowledge must necessarily
affect their knowledge.
Using Complexity Science to Inform
School Mathematics and Mathematics Teacher Education (funded
by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada, Initiative for the New Economy) Brent Davis, Principal
Researcher; Dennis Sumara & Elaine Simmt, Co-Researchers
This project is oriented by the question, “How must
teachers be with mathematics?” The work is prompted
by the realization that the sorts of expertise that teachers
have with mathematics are usually very different from the
sorts of expertise that research mathematicians have with
mathematics. To draw a coarse distinction, research mathematicians
tend to be oriented toward increased abstractions and further-reaching
generalizations--toward packing ideas--whereas teachers must
be adept at uncovering assumptions, offering diverse interpretations,
and making sense of learners’ understandings--at unpacking
ideas.
Normative Structures and Counter-Normative
Strategies in Teacher Education (funded by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada) Dennis Sumara,
Principal Researcher; Brent Davis, Co-Researcher
This project is concerned with the experiences of preservice
teacher candidates who don’t see themselves as fitted
to popular conceptions of ‘good teachers’.We have
two general emphases: First, we are analyzing conceptions
of ‘good teaching’ and examining how these conceptions
frame practices within pre-service teacher education programs.
Second, we are working with pre-service teacher education
candidates who see themselves as outside of normative categories
to better understand how they negotiate their experiences.
Suggested Links:
Complexity
and Education
For the Learning of Mathematics
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