HOFFMAN, Diane (Virginia) CULTURE, KULTURE, AND CULTURE: INFUSION, CONTEST, AND CONTEXT IN THE DISCOURSE OF ELEMENTARY MATH EDUCATORS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Based on analysis of popular mathematics teaching materials, standards of learning documents, and interviews with mathematics educators, I explore the ways in which "culture" has affected the development of contemporary approaches to the teaching of mathematics in U.S. elementary schools. In this domain, culture appears as an "infusion," as a domain of contested meanings, and as a contextual factor framing the delivery of "mathematical thinking," among others. Cultural oppositions between lower_order ("rote") activity and higher order "thinking skills" that frame approaches to mathematics education are deconstructed, as is the cultural discourse of "critical thinking" that underlies these. Using some of the theoretical insights from anthropological forays into practice theory and situated learning, the paper suggests that certain uses of "culture" in current U.S. approaches to mathematics teaching and learning require more refined and critical analysis, particularly when issues of equity and achievement take center stage in reform.