Teachers' Understandings of Mathematics and Languages in Multilingual Contexts

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Addressing Issues of Equity in Mathematics Education

Abstract

In this paper we bring together interviews from two studies, one in Turkey and one in the U.S., to
examine the understandings teachers are articulating about teaching mathematics to young children with an awareness of the linguistic diversity in classrooms. We draw on philosophical hermeneutics for our analysis, with the intention to develop a complex and disruptive understanding of teachers’ experiences and perspectives regarding the role of languages in mathematics learning. We found that the knowledges teachers draw on to promote mathematics learning in contexts of linguistic diversity are reflected in their articulations of the interplays between language and mathematics and their views of strategies to support bilingual students based on their learning, language, and culture.

Authors

• Cristina Valencia Mazzanti, University of Georgia - Athens

• Elif Karsli Calamak, University of South Carolina

• Martha A. Allexsaht-Snider, University of Georgia