Abstract
Throughout the literature on mathematics teaching in multilingual, bilingual or second language classrooms and other contexts of language diversity, there has been a shift from thinking in terms of deficits and barriers to a discourse of dilemmas and tensions. While this work has highlighted the complexity of multilingual mathematics classrooms, it has so far been largely descriptive in nature. This chapter draws on a theoretical perspective based on Bakhtin (The dialogic imagination: Four essays, Austin, TX) that explains how these tensions arise. We develop these ideas through four cases, through which we examine the relationship between different language-related tensions and the classroom contexts in which they arise, focusing particularly on the teacher’s role in mediating these tensions in classroom practice.
Notes
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A detailed analysis of this example can be found in Planas and Setati Phakeng (2014).
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Acknowledgments
RB’s data collection was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. RB is grateful to Adil Dsousa and Élysée Cadet for their assistance. All four authors are grateful to the participants in their research projects.
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Barwell, R., Chapsam, L., Nkambule, T., Phakeng, M.S. (2016). Tensions in Teaching Mathematics in Contexts of Language Diversity. In: Barwell, R., et al. Mathematics Education and Language Diversity. New ICMI Study Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14511-2_10
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