Published in Acta Didactica Napocensia, volume 3 number 2, 1 June 2010
The importance of acknowledging the cultural dimension in
mathematics teaching and learning research
Paul
Andrews, University of Cambridge,
United Kingdom
Abstract.
In this paper, which is in four
parts, I make a plea to those involved in research into mathematics teaching
and learning of the need to acknowledge, however their work is framed, that it
will be located in a culture, not always visible to a reader, that should be
made explicit. In the first part I examine three key models of culture and
their significance for education. In the second I further highlight the impact
of culture on what children are expected by critiquing various models of
curriculum. The third part examines how culture informs the particularities of
four European mathematics curricula, while the fourth part explores culturally
located differences in mathematics teaching. In so doing a plea to researchers
is framed: Culture permeates all aspects of educational endeavour and should be
acknowledged more explicitly than it is.
Keywords: Comparative education research, comparative curriculum analysis,
comparative mathematics teaching, culture, mathematics education research.
Pages 3-16. Download PDF