Annica Andersson

Valuing Diversity in Mathematics Pedagogy Through the Volitional Nature and Alignment of Values

More than ever before, teachers need to value the cultural diversity amongst their students and to value the diversity of mathematical ideas their students bring with them to class. In this chapter, we emphasise the need for the valuing of diversity in ways which are inclusive and empowering to both teachers and their students. Yet, this is not about embracing the diverse perspectives and ideas all at the same time. Given the volitional nature of values and valuing, we acknowledge that mathematics classroom interactions represent sites of contestation and conflicts. We draw on available data to illustrate how teachers can value diversity meaningfully through a process called values alignment. Strategies include the harnessing of mutually held values as well as the re-prioritising of one’s own values.

A Philosophical Perspective on Contextualisations in Mathematics Education

Mathematics is often taught as a subject that can be presented in a clear structure and abstract form within the confines of a textbook resembling what Cobb, Wood, Yackel, and McNeal (1992) referred to as the “school mathematics tradition”. Katja quoted above is, thus, probably not unique in her description of her experiences in mathematics education. Because of the special characteristics of mathematics there might not initially seem to be any obvious reason for introducing students to the troublesome complexities of contextualisation where mathematics is, for example, used in a practical setting, a cross-disciplinary project or the like. Learning the core skills of mathematical calculations can be more than enough of a challenge for both teachers and students.

The Micro-Politics of Counting

When we count, we have to decide what counts and what does not count. Thus, counting is a political act. Certain language repertoires are necessary to convey the ideas and perhaps even to perform counting actions. At the same time, the language used to describe these ideas and enact the processes shapes the way we conceptualize them. Our interest in the experience of counting includes the way counting and its communication position people. In this chapter we identify how micro-political moves are manifested in language and counting situations, including reciting numbers, counting things present and not, and subordinating counting to another goal. In our analysis, we look for language strategies that enable the process of deciding what to (not) count as the process of establishing boundaries or categories, and we consider how these processes work as political acts.

Intersecting Language Repertoires When 4-Year-Olds Count

In this chapter, we consider an interaction among a researcher and four 4-year-old boys who were asked to count beans. By recognizing multiple discourses at play, we problematize the identification of this (and other) interaction as a mathematical (or counting) situation. We identify aspects of the children’s language repertoires and consider how they index various discourses and authority structures. We ask how these discourses intersect in the interaction, and then identify potential implications for education practice and research.

Connections Between Valuing and Values: Exploring Experiences and Rethinking Data Generating Methods

What do teacher colleagues learn when they read our research? What would teacher colleagues find if they looked at some of our research in a different way? Do our teacher friends wonder what it might be like to teach values that they are not sure of? Do our research colleagues wonder whether role play could be a set of new methods we could use in the future that might help in this area? One possibility for teachers we think is using role-playing as a way of building new experiences and for researchers as a potentially different type of data-generating context. Hence in this Discussion Group we explore values and valuing, and then perform and evaluate a role-play to this end. At the core of this context is experiencing what it is like to act out a given valuing role, or observing players who do so, and ascertaining whether identifiable behaviours are more likely to be associated with specific values. We will explore the experiences of the different ‘players’ and wonder whether such an approach will be useful for both teachers and researchers in coming to understand more deeply what it feels like to experience valuing a given value, and deciphering what behaviours point to particular values.