The multiple voices of a mathematics classroom community |
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Authors: | Ellice Forman Ellen Ansell |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychology in Education, 5C01 WWPH, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, U.S.A.;(2) Department of Psychology in Education, 5C01 WWPH, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, U.S.A. |
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Abstract: | Several mathematics educators have expressed their concern about conflicting visions of educational reform among parents and
teachers, which could result in the emergence of multiple voices in discussions of achievement and instruction. The aim of
this article is to examine the multiple voices of educational reform in the discourse of a third grade classroom community.
In order to achieve our aim, we integrated the social and the individual as well as the past, present, and future in our analysis
of the discourse in this classroom community using theoretical frameworks and methods from cultural psychology. Although our
analyses focused on the classroom teacher, we employed units of analysis capable of bridging the individual and her social
context. We began our analysis by focusing on a sample of whole-class discussions of students’ strategies for solving multi-digit
word problems. This analysis isolated two distinct voices: one that occurred during discussions of students’ invented strategies
and the other that emerged during talk about standard algorithms. We extended our analysis to include information about the
historical, social, and institutional context of the classroom community in order to understand the origins and functions
of these two voices. This additional information helped us appreciate the interconnections between the teacher’s personal
feelings, beliefs, recollections, and expectations; and her interpersonal transactions with her students, their parents, and
other educators. We concluded with a discussion of the implications of the study for understanding one of the dilemmas of
educational reform and for advancing research in classroom discourse.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | classroom discourse cultural psychology elementarymathematics research in mathematics education social practice |
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