This paper investigates how mathematics instructors' recognition of the professional obligations of mathematics teaching varies based on their institutional environment, specifically whether they teach high school or college mathematics. Using an instrument that measures instructors’ recognition of four hypothesized professional obligations, we surveyed 471 US high school mathematics teachers and 239 university mathematics instructors to measure the extent to which they recognized professional obligations when evaluating the appropriateness of certain instructional actions. After testing measurement invariance of four item sets, each of which measures one of the four hypothesized professional obligations—disciplinary, institutional, interpersonal, and individual obligations-, we compared the instructors’ recognition of each of the four obligations between the two groups. We found that university instructors recognized the institutional obligation more than high school teachers, while recognizing the individual and interpersonal obligations significantly less. This investigation provides insight into the variation in the nature of mathematics teaching practice across different levels of schooling.

本文调查了数学教师对数学教学专业义务的认识如何根据其制度环境而变化，特别是他们教授高中数学还是大学数学。我们使用一种衡量教师对四种假设专业义务的认可程度的工具，对 471 名美国高中数学教师和 239 名大学数学教师进行了调查，以衡量他们在评估某些教学行为的适当性时对专业义务的认可程度。在测试了四个项目集的测量不变性之后，每个项目集测量四种假设的职业义务（纪律、制度、人际和个人义务）之一，我们比较了两组教师对四项义务的认可程度。我们发现，大学教师比高中教师更多地认识到机构义务，而认识到个人和人际义务则明显较少。这项调查提供了对不同层次学校数学教学实践性质差异的深入了解。