Abstract
A small percent of high school students are performing above satisfactory on end-of-course assessments, especially in Algebra 1 and Geometry. This is indicative that mathematics instruction may need to improve. One innovation in mathematics instruction is the incorporation of storying as an instructional strategy, as there is considerable research that supports its effectiveness. However, there is little evidence that storying is being widely adopted by mathematics teachers, especially those who teach in southwest Florida. The purpose of this study was to determine whether Algebra 1 and Geometry teachers in the sample district understand the construct of story, the degree to which storying is utilized in the classrooms, what they perceive as impediments/barriers to their possibly implementing storying, and whether an acceptable implementation plan can be developed to assist them with overcoming these perceived barriers in order to adopt storying as an accepted instructional strategy. Through an exploratory sequential mixed methods research design, the study was conducted in two phases; quantitative then qualitative. The quantitative phase was an electronic survey of 58 participants. The qualitative phase was ten individual teacher interviews, nine participants with no knowledge of story and one participant currently using storying as an instructional strategy. The results from the study found the majority of Algebra 1 and Geometry in the subject district had no knowledge of story, which influenced their perceptions of the usefulness of storying. This lack of knowledge surrounding story was a barrier preventing their implementing story as well as a perceived lack of time to do so properly, the lack of a set curriculum, and their general discomfort with making changes to what they are accustomed to doing in the classroom. These findings are further discussed in the study as well as presenting a hypothesis as to what would constitute as appropriate implementation plan to overcome those barriers.