Navigating Numeracies

by Street, Brian; Baker, Dave; Tomlin, Alison

• ISBN13: 9781402036767
• ISBN10: 1402036760
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-15
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

The book aims to further understanding of why some pupils have low achievement in numeracy in the school context. The authors aim to achieve this by a relatively original view that focuses on numeracy as a social practice. They report on their investigations into the meanings and uses of numeracy in school and home and community contexts, using ethnographic-style approaches, including formal and informal interviews and observations. The book will be useful for policy, practice and further research into the teaching and learning of mathematics in schools. It will therefore be of interest to policy makers, teachers and practitioners, academics and practitioners in teacher education, education researchers, and parents and community leaders.

Author Biography

Dave Baker studied mathematics before becoming a teacher of mathematics in schools. He taught on teacher education programmes and then undertook research into teaching and learning mathematics in schools and its links to children's homes. He has focused on issues of social justice in mathematics and has sought to extend current developments in pedagogy towards widening access and to the need to transform dominant practices in schooling. He has published two books, presented at many conferences and published academic papers on mathematics education. Prof. Street trained in anthropology and has a longstanding commitment to linking ethnographic-style research on the cultural dimension of language and literacy with contemporary practice in education and in development. He has engaged in this in a number of countries - USA, S. Africa, Nepal, India, Iran etc. and has published 12 books and over 80 academic articles in international contexts. He has recently worked with colleagues in mathematics education to consider the implications of these approaches for numeracy research, pedagogy and curriculum.Dr. Alison Tomlin has worked as a teacher and manager in adult literacy and numeracy community education settings, and as a manager of an inner city adult education programme which sought to be responsive to demand for education from local communities. Following doctoral research in adult numeracy education organised in collaboration with a group of students of adult numeracy, she was a researcher with the home/school numeracy practices team, and is now researching in adult numeracy. She has published articles relating to home/school numeracy practices research and to adult literacy and numeracy education.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Margaret Brown: The Leverhulme Numeracy Programme	vii
Introduction to the Book	xix
List of Tables	xxv
SECTION 1: THE CONTEXT
Introduction: the research aims and synopsis of book	1	(2)
Explanations for low achievement; class, poverty, ethnicity	3	(10)
SECTION 2: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY	13	(22)
Theoretical Positions: A `social' approach to numeracy; Numeracy events and practices
Methodology: Exploring the relationship between home and school; domains and sites, case studies and critical incidents	25	(10)
SECTION 3: CASE STUDIES	35	(80)
Children Case Studies	39	(40)
Seth's story at Mountford	39	(13)
Kim's story at Tarnside	52	(12)
Anne's Story at Rowan	64	(15)
School Case Studies	79	(36)
Mountford	79	(11)
Tarnside	90	(12)
Rowan	102	(13)
SECTION 4: THEMES	115	(56)
Numeracy Practices at School: Engagement, Coded Questions and Switching	117	(12)
Numeracy Practices at Home: Cultural Resources	129	(16)
Numeracy Practices: Relations of Home and School	145	(18)
Conclusion: Explanations for Low Achievement: Implications for Practice, Policy and Research	163	(8)
APPENDICES	171	(18)
Appendix A: Numeracy Practices: `Framework 2'	171	(5)
Appendix B: Leverhulme Numeracy Programme Focus 4: School and Community Numeracies	176	(5)
Appendix C: Leverhulme Numeracy Programme Focus 4: School and Community Numeracies Checklist for Classroom Visits	181	(4)
Appendix D: Leverhulme Numeracy Programme: F 4 `School and community Numeracies' Brian Street Report on Mountford Home Visits	185	(4)
Annex 1: Core Project: Tracking Numeracy	189	(6)
Annex 2: Focus Project: Teachers' Knowledge, Conceptions and Practices	195	(4)
Annex 3: Focus Project: Whole School Action On Numeracy	199	(4)
Annex 4: Focus Project: Cognitive Acceleration in Mathematics Education in the Primary School (P-Came)	203	(4)
References	207	(8)
Index	215