Textbooks at the Interface Among Culture, Policy, and Curricular Practice in France and Norway

• In Event: Multiple Approaches to Cross-Cultural Mathematics Education Studies: Advancing Understanding of Teaching as a Cultural Activity

Abstract

Objectives
We report on an investigation of mathematics curriculum documents, commonly used textbooks, and teacher ‘curricular practice’ with respect to educational traditions in France and Norway. The following questions were examined: What are the educational and cultural traditions underpinning mathematics curricular documents and practices in France and Norway? And more specifically, in which ways do educational and cultural traditions influence national curricula, textbooks and curricular practice in the two countries?

Theoretical Position
It is claimed that textbooks are the mediators between “the intent of curricular policy and the instruction that occurs in the classroom” (Valverde et al. 2002, p. 2). Researchers contend that textbooks are situated at the interface between the intended and enacted curriculum, and thus are quasi-policy documents. At the same time the textbook is commonly seen as the major curriculum resource in the classroom for teachers and students (Remillard 2005; Pepin, Gueudet & Trouche 2013b), and a major source of provision of educational opportunities (e.g. Schmidt 2012).

Methods of Inquiry
Mathematics curricular documents refer to (a) official national curricula (as provided by the ministries) and (b) textbooks (as provided/used by schools/teachers); and curricular practices refer to (a) mathematical practices (as suggested by textbooks/documents) and (b) teachers’ pedagogic practices, in particular their work with the curricular documents.
The choice of the two countries, Norway and France, was purposeful: both countries were regarded as countries where egalitarian values were upheld; both countries claimed (in national education documents) that they had built their education system on egalitarian views; and both have been involved in recent changes to their curricular systems.

Data Sources
In developing a three-layer analytic framework used in the study, we pursued an iterative approach that combined results from the literature with our investigation of (a) selected mathematics textbooks, focusing on treatment of mathematics (Pepin & Haggarty 2001; Brändström 2005); (b) curricular policy documents, focusing on ideological (Braathe 2012) and mathematical (Morgan 2005) discourse; and (c) curricular practices in the two countries, focusing on one French and one Norwegian mathematics teacher’s general pedagogic practice and use of textbooks.

Results
Results show that French and Norwegian curricular documents and practices were influenced by egalitarian values, albeit differently interpreted and ‘lived’ in each country. In terms of mathematics, using a focus on grade 6 geometric transformations has shown that French textbooks and teacher curricular practices emphasized theoretical properties and mathematical reasoning, whereas the Norwegian counterparts stressed practical and inquiry-based activities.

Significance of the Work
The study has helped to develop a deeper understanding of (a) educational traditions in France and Norway; (b) the ways the educational traditions permeate the system, from policy documents through textbooks into the classroom; and (c) the connections between the worlds of policy, textbooks, and teacher curricular practice in mathematics. These connections may, to some extent, explain the relative stability of teacher curricular practices, even in times of policy changes (e.g. towards inquiry-based teaching).

Authors

• Birgit Pepin, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

• Ghislaine Gueudet, University of Brest

• Luc Trouche, ENS de Lyon