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Agency, Materiality, and Mathematics Learning in a Preschool Classroom

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Inside the Mathematics Class

Part of the book series: Advances in Mathematics Education ((AME))

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Abstract

By taking a socio-political stance towards the positive adoption of iPads to advance mathematical learning, this paper explores mathematical practices in a Swedish preschool class (children aged six to seven) where each young student was provided with a digital tablet. The focus is on how the students’ agency or boundaries emerge in the relational practices between the students and the materials: hands-on-manipulatives as well as digital technology. The paper adopts a socio-material perspective for the analysis of the practices. Both digital technology and the more traditional hands-on-manipulatives are exemplifying materials in the intertwining of human and non-human agency.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Different authors vary the term to socio-materiality or social materiality. In this chapter, I write sociomateriality except when referring to a certain author. The term relates to social interaction in a technological world (Leonardi et al. 2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Eva Norén

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  1. Eva Norén
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Correspondence to Eva Norén .

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  1. Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Uwe Gellert

  2. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Christine Knipping

  3. Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Hauke Straehler-Pohl

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Norén, E. (2018). Agency, Materiality, and Mathematics Learning in a Preschool Classroom. In: Gellert, U., Knipping, C., Straehler-Pohl, H. (eds) Inside the Mathematics Class. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79045-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79045-9_7

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