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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICS EDUCATION AND SOCIETY CONFERENCE Volume 2 Margot Berger, Karin Brodie, Vera Frith and Kate le Roux (Editors) Cape Town, South Africa 2nd to 7th April 2013 MES 7 Proceedings of the Seventh International Mathematics Education and Society Conference Edited by Margot Berger, Karin Brodie, Vera Frith and Kate le Roux First published in April 2013 Published by MES 7 Printed by Hansa Print (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town © Proceedings: Margot Berger, Karin Brodie, Vera Frith and Kate le Roux © Articles: Individual authors ISSN 2077-9933 MES 7 Conference Logo The MES 7 logo design is based on the engraved markings found on the Blombos ochre plaque, thought by many to be the world’s first symbolic object. This artefact was found by Christopher Henshilwood in 1991 in a small cave near Still Bay on the southern Cape coast of South Africa, and has been reliably dated to about 75 000 years ago. Although there is some debate about the meaning of these markings, many believe that they are evidence for symbolic thought processes as the systematic pattern suggests that the markings represent information rather than decoration. MES 7 Local Organising Committee Karin Brodie, Kate le Roux, Margot Berger, Vera Frith, Mellony Graven, Jacob Jaftha, Elspeth Khembo, Nicholas Molefe, Lindiwe Tshabalala, Hamsa Venkat, and Renuka Vithal. MES 7 International Advisory Board Sikunder Ali Baber, Rosa Becerra, Karin Brodie, Tony Cotton, Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, Uwe Gellert, Eva Jablonka, Clive Kanes, and Swapna Mukhopadhyay. Acknowledgements The conference organisers would like to acknowledge the financial support of the following institutions: Rhodes University, University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of the Witwatersrand, National Research Foundation of South Africa. We also acknowledge the role of the South African Mathematics Foundation and the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town in underwriting the costs of the conference. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION i PLENARY PAPERS AND REACTIONS Anna Chronaki 1 Identity work as a political space for change: The case of mathematics teaching through technology use Troels Lange 19 Whose identity? Response to Anna Chronaki’s keynote address at MES 7 Peter Pausigere 25 On maths teacher identity: A response to Anna Chronaki’s ‘identity work’ Zain Davis 31 Constructing descriptions and analyses of mathematics constituted in pedagogic situations, with particular reference to an instance of addition over the reals Candia Morgan 60 Reflections on evaluation and values in mathematics education practices: A response to Zain Davis Tamsin Meaney 65 The privileging of English in mathematics education research, just a necessary evil? David W. Stinson 85 An English Only fountain: A response to Tamsin Meaney’s critique of English privilege in mathematics education research Lindiwe Tshabalala 89 Mathematics education research in South Africa: A response to Tamsin Meaney Swapna Mukhopadhyay 94 The mathematical practices of those without power Shaheeda Jaffer 103 Response to Swapna Mukhopadhyay: The mathematical practices of those without power Joi A. Spencer 110 Comments on “The mathematical practices of those without power” SYMPOSIA Mellony Graven, Barbara Pence, Susie Hakansson and Peter 117 Pausigere Exploring the relationship between in-service mathematics teacher support and retention Heather Mendick, Candia Morgan and Cathy Smith 121 The social function of mathematics examination questions David W. Stinson and Anita A. Wager 125 Teaching mathematics for social justice: Conversations with educators Hamsa Venkat and Lynn Bowie 129 Understanding the prevalence of concrete working with number across teaching and learning in Foundation Phase PROJECT PRESENTATIONS Margot Berger 135 Powerful mathematics: Empowering learners Hans Jørgen Braathe and Ann Merete Otterstad 139 Research based teacher education; Discursive positioning of teacher educators in Norway Karin Brodie 143 Extending the community in professional learning community Anita Campbell 148 The role of voluntary online tutoring in building students’ identities as community participants Lisa Darragh 152 Students’ mathematical identity construction in their transition to secondary school Jennifer Godfrey 156 Language of evaluation: Implications of self and teacher judgement in middle school mathematics Guðný Helga Gunnarsdóttir and Guðbjörg Pálsdóttir 160 What influences the structure and content of mathematics teacher education in Iceland? Rune Herheim, Kjellrun Hiis Hauge, Marit Johnsen-Høines, Toril 164 Eskeland Rangnes Critical democratic competence and classroom discussion – A project at an initial stage PROJECT PRESENTATIONS Sara Muller 168 The beliefs of secondary school mathematics teachers in bilingual rural classrooms in South Africa Anna-Karin Nordin and Cecilia Sträng 172 Teachers’ collaborative learning and students’ opportunities to participate in mathematical reasoning Femi S. Otulaja 176 Role modeling and learner’s mathematical identity in a mentoring program in township schools RESEARCH PAPERS Jill Adler 183 Access, equity and knowledge in use in secondary school mathematics in South Africa Annica Andersson and Wee Tiong Seah 193 Facilitating mathematics learning in different contexts: The values perspective Anita Balasubramanian and Rico Gutstein 203 The complexity of interweaving mathematical and sociopolitical content Jonei Cerqueira Barbosa 213 Designing written tasks in the pedagogic recontextualising field: Proposing a theoretical model Tonya Bartell, Kristen Bieda, M. Lynn Breyfogle, Sandra Crespo, 223 Higinio Dominguez, Corey Drake and Beth Herbel-Eisenmann Strong is the silence: Challenging systems of privilege and oppression in mathematics teacher education Lisa Björklund Boistrup and Eva Norén 232 Power relations in mathematics education: Researching assessment discourses in day-to-day communication in mathematics classrooms Lynn Bowie 243 The interplay of the social, pedagogical and mathematical in a mathematics textbook Million Chauraya 253 Mathematics teacher identity in a professional learning community RESEARCH PAPERS Haiwen Chu and Laurie H. Rubel 262 When the world is not the problem: Real-world contexts in analogies Vera Frith and Pam Lloyd 272 Quantitative literacy and epistemological access at university: Reflections on using the threshold concept framework for research Brian Greer 282 Teaching through Ethnomathematics: Possibilities and dilemmas Beth Herbel-Eisenmann and David Wagner 291 Mathematics teachers’ representations of authority Sally Hobden 301 Maths is actually everyone’s problem: Sociocultural factors effecting the (re)learning of mathematics in a foundational module Lateefah Id-Deen 311 Students’ mathematical identities in relationship to an intensive mathematics summer program Shaheeda Jaffer 322 Maintaining the focus on mathematics and the social in mathematics education research Robyn Jorgensen 330 School mathematics as a “game”: Being explicit and consistent Robyn Jorgenson and Tom Lowrie 340 Socio-economic status and rurality as scholastic mortality: Exploring failure at mathematics Troels Lange 350 Identity work in transitioning between contexts Kate le Roux 360 “I just make sure that I go for it”: A mathematics student’s transition to and through university Anna Llewellyn 370 The pursuit of progress Leticia Losano and Mónica Villarreal 380 Success, failure and dropout at university entrance: An analysis of their sociocultural construction RESEARCH PAPERS Duncan Mhakure, Jacob Jaftha and Sheena Rughubar-Reddy 390 A framework to understand the contribution of quantitative literacy to the social justice agenda: A pilot study Carlos Monteiro, Liliane Carvalho and Karen Francois 400 The teaching of mathematics in rural schools in Brazil: What teachers say Hana Moraová and Jarmila Novotná 410 Textbooks of mathematics as literary microcosm: Why and how can these texts be analysed Caty Morris, Kylie Toberty, Stephen Thornton and Jo Statton 421 Numeracy, mathematics and aboriginal learners: Developing responsive mathematics pedagogy Eva Norén and Lisa Björklund Boistrup 431 What is a group? Theoretical considerations when researching affordances for multilingual students’ mathematical learning Kicki Skog and Annica Andersson 441 Exploring identity positioning as an analytical tool Michael D. Steele and Alexandria Theakston Musselman 452 Identity development through mathematics discourse: Teacher learning about positioning Hauke Straehler-Pohl 463 When knowledge loses relevance - A mathematics classroom in a context of social and institutional segregation Zayoni Torres and Ramon Moran 473 The political, the personal, implications for mathematics education: The case of Chicago and Tucson David Wagner and Beth Herbel-Eisenmann 483 Disbursing authority among mathematics students MES 7 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 493 RESEARCH PAPERS THE INTERPLAY OF THE SOCIAL, PEDAGOGICAL AND MATHEMATICAL IN A MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOK Lynn Bowie University of the Witwatersrand This paper presents an analysis of the geometry chapters of a grade 10 South African school textbook designed to comply with the first post-apartheid curriculum. The paper looks at the effect of three strong forces (social redress, mathematics and learner-centred pedagogy) prioritised in the curriculum on the mathematics constituted by the textbook and argues that the interplay of these forces has significant effects on how each of them come to be realised in the textbook. INTRODUCTION