Understanding the Cultural Construction of School Mathematics

For more than twenty years I have been observing, video-recording and analysing mathematics teaching in various European countries. In addition, due to the generosity of my graduate students and other colleagues, I have acquired video recordings of mathematics lessons from several other European countries. My interpretation of all this material has led me to two conclusions. The first, as found throughout the literature (Schmidt et al., 1996; Hiebert et al., 2003), is that mathematics teachers tend to behave in ways that align them more closely with their compatriots than with teachers elsewhere. The second, which may in part explain the first, is that the cultures in which teachers operate have as much, if not more, influence on student achievement as the ways in which mathematics is taught. For example, successive iterations of the programme of international student assessment (PISA) (OECD, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010a, 2013) have highlighted Finnish students' linguistic and mathematical competence. However, recent analyses indicate that such successes may be due more to matters cultural than didactical (Andrews, 2011, 2013; Andrews et al., 2014). I return later to the issue of Finland, which is particularly significant in light of continual media and other attention paid that country. But first it as important to explain what this chapter will, and will not, attempt to achieve. The principal aim is to show how culture, the meaning of which will be discussed below, underpins all aspects of school mathematics, whether it be the curriculum specified by the system, the development of the textbooks that teachers may or may not be compelled to use, the ways teachers teach, the classroom interactions privileged by the system or the beliefs, attitudes and aspirations of teachers, students and parents. To do this, however, requires some understanding of the nature of culture and its educational manifestation.