A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Voice of Six Teacher's Guides From Three Cultural Contexts

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

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Position
This paper presents a cross-cultural analysis of mathematics curriculum materials, focusing on the teacher’s guide, in three distinct school systems: the United States; Flanders (Dutch speaking part of Belgium); and Sweden. Mathematics curriculum materials are used by elementary teachers around the world (Valverde et al., 2002). Designed for use by teachers and students, these materials represent assumptions about what mathematics teaching and learning should look like and the guidance teachers might need to realize these visions.

We focus our analysis on the teacher’s guide because it provides insight into how the teacher’s role is conceptualized and supported to enact instructional designs. Because we view the teacher’s guide as a medium for communication between curriculum authors and teachers, we focus our analysis on the voice of the text, defined as the ways curriculum authors communicate with teachers (Author, 2012).

We compare six teacher’s guides, two from each of three cultural contexts, considering a) different ways curriculum authors use the voice of the text to communicate to teachers, b) what these differences suggest about mathematics teaching and learning, and c) how these differences relate to cultural traditions and educational practices in each context.

Analytical Approach and Methods
We examine the visual voice, how mathematics instruction is represented through visual layout, and written guidance. Davis and Kajcik (2005) propose that curriculum programs designed to be educative for teachers might help them a) attend to student thinking, b) make connections within the discipline, c) understand designers’ rationale for pedagogical choices, and d) mobilize curricular materials within a specific classroom context.

We analyzed a sample of 72 lessons, evenly distributed among grades 3-5 and 2 teacher’s guides for each country. Using constant comparative approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), we identified prominent visual features in each guide and looked for analogous or contrasting features in the other guides. In order to examine how the authors communicate with the teacher, we coded each sentence or phrase using a coding scheme based on Davis and Krajcik’s (2005) design principles.

Results
Our analysis revealed differences and similarities, across and within the cultural contexts. The six teacher’s guides make use of three visual modalities, the representation of a lesson, chalkboards, and student pages. As for the written approach to providing guidance, we noted significant difference in the amount of guidance offered in the teacher’s guide. In contrast to the U.S. or Flanders, lessons in the Swedish guides contain limited detail. Another difference relates to the balance between directive and educative guidance. The Flanders lessons are much more directive than educative. The US lessons and one Swedish guide are quite balanced, and lessons in the other Swedish guide are more educative.

Significance
We find that the dominant instructional mode in each culture is reflected in the mode by which text authors communicate with teachers. In Swedish elementary math education, student texts have a central position. The teacher’s role is to facilitate the student-text interaction. In Flanders and the U.S., teachers play a directive role, leading instruction.

Authors

• Janine Remillard, University of Pennsylvania

• Hendrik Van Steenbrugge, Mälardalen University

• Tomas Bergqvist, Umeå University