Some problems of socio-cultural research in mathematics teaching and learning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/nomad.v8i3.146711Abstract
In the spirit of the conference, this article is not to argue for a socio-cultural perspective. I have been working in this area for close on a decade now and although I sometimes engage in discussions about theoretical perspectives (see Lerman, 1996; 2000) the intention of this paper is somewhat different. Instead I will first summarise some of what I consider the key notions of socio-cultural theory for education in general terms. I will then describe some of the aspects of a socio-cultural perspective on mathematics teaching and learning with which currently I struggle in my work.
References
Apple, M. (1991). The Culture and Commerce of the Textbook. In M. Apple & L. Christian- Smith (Eds.), The Politics of the Textbook (22-39). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315021089-2
Apple, M. (1998). Markets and standards: The politics of education in a conservative age. In A. Olivier & K. Newstead (Eds.), Proceedings of the twenty-second annual meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 1, 19-32). Stellenbosch, South Africa: Faculty of Education, The University of Stellenbosch.
Ball, S. J. (1993). Education, Majorism and the 'curriculum of the dead'. Curriculum Studies, 1(2), 195-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965975930010202
Bernstein, B. (1996). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. London: Taylor and Francis.
Boaler, J. (1997). Experiencing school mathematics: Teaching styles, sex and setting Buckingham: Open University Press.
Brown, A. & Dowling, P. (1998) Doing Research/Reading Research: A Mode of Interrogation for Education London: Falmer.
Clarke, D. (Ed.), (in press) Perspectives on meaning in mathematics and science classrooms. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Cooper, B., & Dunne, M. (1999). Assessing Children's Mathematical Knowledge Buckingham: Open University Press.
Daniels, H. (1993). The individual and the organization. In H. Daniels (Ed.) Charting the agenda: Educational Activity After Vygotsky (pp. 46-67). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203294543
Day, C. (2000) An Activity Theory Approach to the Teaching and Dynamic Assesssment of Mathematics, with Particular Reference to the Use of Algebra and Functions in Problem Solving. Unpublished PhD dissertation, South Bank University, London.
Davydov, V. V. (1988). Problems of developmental teaching. Soviet Education, 30, 6-97. https://doi.org/10.2753/RES1060-939330086
Dowling, P. (1998). The sociology of mathematics education: Mathematical myths/ pedagogic texts. London: Falmer Press.
Ensor, P. (1999) A study of the recontextualising of pedagogic practices from a South African University preservice mathematics teacher education course by seven beginning secondary mathematics teachers. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of London.
Evans, J. T. (in press) Mathematical Thinking and Emotions: a Study of Adults' Numerate Practices London: Falmer.
Falcão, J., Lima, A., Araújo, C, Lessa, M. & Osório, M. (2000). Introducing Algebraic Activity in Elementary Level. Topic Study Group I: The Teaching and Learning of Algebra, ICME 9, Tokyo.
Galperin, P. Y. (1969). Stages in the development of mental acts. In M. Cole & I. Maltzman (Eds.) A Handbook of Contemporary Soviet Psychology (pp. 34-61), New York: Basic Books.
Gone, J. P., Miller, P. J., & Rappaport, J. (1999). Conceptual narrative as normatively oriented: The suitability of past personal narrative for the study of cultural identity. Culture & Psychology, 5(4), 371-398. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X9954001
Karpov, Y. V. & Haywood, H. C. (1998). Two aays to elaborate Vygotsky's concept of mediation: Implications for instruction American Psychologist 53(1), 27-36. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066X.53.1.27
Lave, J. (1996). Teaching, as learning, in practice. Mind, Culture & Activity 3, 149-164. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca0303_2
Leont'ev, A. N. (1981). The problem of activity in psychology. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in soviet psychology, (37-71). Armonk, NY: Sharpe.
Lerman, S. (1996) Intersubjectivity in Mathematics Learning: A Challenge to the Radical Constructivist Paradigm? Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 27(2), 133- 150. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.27.2.0133
Lerman, S. (1998) A Moment in the Zoom of a Lens: Towards a Discursive Psychology of Mathematics Teaching and Learning. In A. Olivier & K. Newstead (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Meeting of the International Groupfor the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Stellenbosch, South Africa, Vol. 1, 66-81.
Lerman, S. (2000a) A Case of Interpretations of Social: A Response to Steffe and Thompson. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 31(2), 210-227. https://doi.org/10.2307/749752
Lerman, S. (2000b). The social turn in mathematics education research. In J. Boaler ( Ed.) Multiple Perspectives on Mathematics Teaching and Learning. (19-44) Westport, CT: Ablex. https://doi.org/10.5040/9798400688362.0005
Lerman, S. (in press b). Accounting for accounts of learning mathematics: Reading the ZPD in videos and transcripts. In D. Clarke (Ed.), Perspectives on meaning in mathematics and science classrooms. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Lerman, S. & Tsatsaroni, A. (1998). Why children fail and what mathematics education studies can do about it: The role of sociology. Paper presented at First International Conference on Mathematics, Education and Society (MEAS1), University of Nottingham, www.nottingham.ac.uk/csme/meas/plenaries/lerman.html
Lins, R. C. (1994). Eliciting the meanings for algebra produced by students: Knowledge, justification and semantic fields. In J-P da Ponte and J-F Matos (Eds.) Proceedings of Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, (Vol. 3, pp. 184-191), Lisbon, Portugal.
Meira, L. & Lerman, S. (in press). The zone of proximal development as a symbolic space. Cognition and Instuction.
Minick, N. (1987). The development of Vygotsky's thought: An introduction. In R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton (Eds.), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Volume 1: Problems of general psychology (pp. 17-36). New York: Plenum Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1655-8_2
Morgan, C. & Lerman, S. (2000) Teachers' positionings in assessment discourses: Including a sociological perspective on the mathematics classroom. In T. Nakahara & M. Koyama (Eds.) Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 1, p. 173), Department of Education, Hiroshima University.
Newman, F., & Holzman, L. (1993). Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary scientist. London: Routledge.
Pimm, D. (1987). Speaking Mathematically: Communication in Mathematics Classrooms. London: Routledge.
Pinxten, R. (1994). Anthropology in the mathematics classroom? In S. Lerman (Ed.), Cultural Perspectives on the Mathematics Classroom (pp. 85-97). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1199-9_6
Steffe, L. P. & Thompson, P. W. (2000). Interaction or intersubjectivity?: A reply to Lerman. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 31(2), 191-209. https://doi.org/10.2307/749751
Santos M. & Matos, J.-F. (1998) School mathematics learning: Participation through appropriation of mathematical artefacts. In A. Watson (Ed.) Situated Cognition and the Learning of Mathematics, Centre for Mathematics Education Research, University of Oxford Department of Educational Studies.
Smith, L. (1993). Necessary Knowledge: Piagetian Perspectives on Constructivism Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Talyzina, N. F. (1981). The Psychology of Learning Moscow: Progress Books.
Vygotsky, L. (1924/1979) Consciousness as a Problem in the Psychology of Behaviour. Soviet Psychology, 17, 5-35. https://doi.org/10.2753/RPO1061-040517043
Walkerdine, V. (1988). The mastery of reason London: Routledge.
Wittgenstein, L. (1967). Philosophical investigations. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
