Livability and recognizability in mathematics teacher education: embodiment and interpretative knowledge as social justice practices within the Mathematical Working Space

This study puts Mathematical Working Spaces (MWS) theory in dialogue with Butler's (2004, 2015) concepts of livability and recognizability as equity-oriented lenses for inclusive mathematics teacher education. Twenty prospective teachers engaged in a two-phase workshop combining an embodied approach within MWS, involving sensory-motor exploration of geometric concepts with digital artefacts, and an MWS-Interpretative Knowledge phase (MWS-IK), involving peer interpretation and collaborative task redesign. Findings show that the embodied approach broadened access and belonging, enacting livability, while MWS-IK expanded the legitimacy of diverse mathematical ways of reasoning or making errors, enacting recognizability. The study argues that connecting being, doing, and knowing in prospective teacher education requires structuring mathematical working spaces as sites of identity formation, social justice, and inclusive professional practice.