Methodology

In Chapter 2 we laid out the theoretical and conceptual framework for the research on which this book is based. Drawing upon theory in literacy studies, we developed the concepts of numeracy events and numeracy practices, that informed both the data collection and the accounts we give here of our subjects’ uses and meanings of numeracy. In applying these concepts to home and school numeracy we were drawn to developing further classifications and we developed a matrix for analysing home and school sites and domains. In this chapter we outline and justify our working methods and demonstrate how we operationalised our initial concepts and emerging classifications for research purposes. We then discuss how we moved to offering rich descriptions of the various categories identified there, through use of case studies and critical incidents. These case studies provide the main substance of Section 3 in which we provide rich detail of both the individual children and of the schools we researched, as a basis for then drawing out more analytic themes in Section 4.