Outline of a Theory of Practice.
About: This article is published in Contemporary Sociology.The article was published on 1980-03-01. It has received 14683 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Practice theory.
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TL;DR: For example, this article found that teachers in a course on social justice in mathematics found it difficult to move flexibly between the mathematics content and conversations about social injustice, and Gutstein (2006) also admitted that in his class, he had to occasionally forgo opportunities to pursue mathematical investigations to deepen the conversations of social issues.
Abstract: principles and procedures in mathematics. The research on the implementation of social justice tasks in the mathematics classroom has also prompted questions about the difficulty of balancing discussions of complex social issues with the mathematics. For example, Bartell (2006) reports that teachers in her professional development course on social justice in mathematics found it challenging to move flexibly between the mathematics content and conversations about social injustice. Gutstein (2006) also admits that in his class, he had to occasionally forgo opportunities to pursue mathematical investigations to deepen the conversations about social issues. Because students often hold strong perspectives about social injustice and these can trigger emotional responses, it is clearly important for teachers to be able to adeptly and sensitively guide students back to the mathematics at hand. We wonder, then, if teachers are being prepared and have bargained for doing this multifaceted work. Also, can social justice activities stemming from students’ social realities sufficiently drive students’ development of sophisticated mathematics knowing across an extended period of time? Or should they mainly serve as supplemental materials to the existing mathematics curriculum, used to convince students that learning mathematics is relevant and even critical to improving their lives and the lives of others? A second challenge is in thinking about how one might apply these approaches in racially or ethnically heterogeneous classrooms. This is an especially salient issue for Funds of Knowledge and the Algebra Project, as to some degree, these approaches assume a degree of coherence within the communities that are being served. How might these approaches be adapted in classrooms where students are from multiple communities? What might it mean to draw on students’ experiences in such multicultural classrooms? This may be less of an issue with social justice approaches, but it still leaves more to be negotiated with and between students in classrooms where there is a wide range of race, class, or socioeconomic groups represented. How are teachers to deal with kids from communities that do not share a social justice perspective or see social justice in terms of their own philanthropy? Would such students (not from working-class families) buy into the basic premises of this approach? What additional support might they need to do so? Another critical issue with social justice approaches is that the time spent on social justice issues is potentially time not spent on math. What about the middle-class and upper-class parents who are unwilling to sacrifice time for “basic math” and relegate these approaches as appropriate only for those from nondominant groups? Similarly, in considering heterogeneity and culturally relevant pedagogy, it may be more difficult in heterogeneous classrooms and communities to have a sense of the community that students come from; there may be greater differences in achievement and histories with school among the students as well as variety in issues of identity that may need to be attended to. A third challenge involves the constraints imposed by the racial and gender makeup of the teaching force in this country and the structure of the profession. 222 Review of Research in Education, 32 The vast majority of teachers in the United States are White, middle-class women (Howard, 1999; Nieto, 2004). This is potentially a population of teachers for whom the approaches we describe may be particularly difficult, as they likely have the most to learn about their students’ communities. Although mathematics teachers are often marginalized within the broader mathematics community, they may not share the same level of marginalization with their nondominant students. Furthermore, teaching is a profession that is largely underpaid and overworked (Darling-Hammond, 1997). Most teachers, given the structure of the school day and demands on their time, have little time to conduct the kind of in-depth investigations of their students and their communities these approaches suggest. Even more important, in the broader context of increased reliance on standardized testing with high stakes for teachers and schools, these approaches that require more of teachers may be unrealistic. Any approach that argues for particular teaching strategies must take into account these very real constraints. However, despite these challenges, we see great promise in the work of the aforementioned approaches, and we offer these critiques as a way to continue to make progress on ways to support increased equity in math classrooms. It is important to note that these approaches highlight the critical role of teachers in reproducing patterns of inequity. In the next section, we focus on the implications our review may have for the knowledge teachers need to have to best support equity and begin to “blur the lines” between cultural and domain knowledge and work simultaneously at all three levels of our model. Because of space, we do not undertake a full review of the vast literature on teacher professional development that includes a cultural or equity lens (see Sowder, 2007; Wilson & Berne, 1999). Rather, we reflect on the implications for teacher training of the research we have reviewed in this chapter, drawing on some of the relevant work in teacher professional development. Toward this end, we briefly consider two questions. What knowledge do teachers need to know, and what professional development models might prove productive possibilities for sharing that knowledge with teachers? Implications for Teacher Knowledge The work of teachers has grown considerably more complex in the past 10 years (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Lampert & Ball, 1998; Putnam & Borko, 2000). Standards-based instructional practices require that teachers develop a specialized form of mathematics knowledge for teaching (MKT; Ball, 2005; Hill, Schilling, & Ball, 2004; Hill, Sleep, Lewis, & Ball, 2007) that reflects a particular blend of connected domain understanding with techniques and strategies to facilitate productive classroom interactions. Although the details of MKT are currently being worked out, the domain understanding required for eliciting, evaluating, and building (Carpenter, Fennema & Franke, 1996; Lampert, 1990, 2001; Schifter, 2001) on students’ mathematical ideas reflects a facility with and deep understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures across the terrain of K–12 mathematics (Greeno, 1991; Ma, 1999; NCTM, 1991, 2000). Teachers need to have Nasir et al.: Culture and Mathematics in School 223 the opportunity to develop mathematics knowing in practice through ongoing reflection in the classroom and with their peers through the use of records of practice, video, and other learning materials (Kazemi & Franke, 2004; Lampert & Ball, 1998). As Rochelle Gutiérrez (2002b) argues, however, knowledge of dominant mathematics must also be balanced with knowledge of how to enable students to critique the role of mathematics in society and to “contribute toward a positive relationship between mathematics, people, and society in ways that erase inequities on this planet” (p. 172). Delineating a set of teaching practices that encompasses both dominant and critical perspectives on mathematics is complicated by the fact that some classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse while others slip into hypersegregation (Orfield, Frankenberg, & Lee, 2003). Students themselves are also quite complex, as they negotiate hybrid practices, identities, and time scales through new global technologies that transcend traditional racial, social, and linguistic boundaries (Barab, Hay, Barnett, & Squire, 2001; Delpit, 2002; Gergen, 1991; Moje, Ciechanowski, Ellis, Carrillo, & Collazo, 2004). Thus, as we noted, in this chapter we do not presume to be able to comprehensively outline the knowledge teachers need to teach mathematics effectively and fairly. Instead, we juxtapose recent theoretical shifts that blur the boundaries between mathematics and cultural knowledge, with the implications of the various programs we reviewed above to propose ideas about effective mathematics teaching in classrooms with diverse populations of students. First, the Funds of Knowledge approach would suggest that an important aspect of teacher preparation would support teachers in viewing their students as whole people with rich social and intellectual lives outside of the classroom. Activities for prospective teachers might include spending time with students and families outside of school (Civil, 2002; Foote, 2006) and bringing families into schools to better understand students’ interests and skills outside of the classroom and those that exist as funds of knowledge in their communities. Additionally, professional development activities might include a study of modules developed with students’ and families’ funds of knowledge at the center and might offer models for alternative ways to incorporate family and community members into classroom activities. An important aspect of this work would be to support prospective or current teachers in understanding the value (both for students’ learning and for social justice) of shifting the traditional power relations between families and schools and of opening communication channels. Similarly, the activities of the Algebra Project would also suggest that supporting teachers in understanding the importance of and offering suggestions for how to better get to know the young people they are teaching is a critical focus for teacher preparation. The Algebra Project might also share an orientation for teachers that views math teaching as political activity and sees subverting current patterns of unequal access to higher mathematics as an immediate concern. Moses and Cobb (2001) argue that students need to be taught to
253 citations
TL;DR: A meeting ground for mainstream social theory and contemporary feminist theory is discussed in this paper, which brings feminist theory face to face with Pierre Bourdieu s social theory, and defines new territories for feminist theorizing.
Abstract: A meeting ground for mainstream social theory and contemporary feminist theory. Brings feminist theory face to face with Pierre Bourdieu s social theory. Demonstrates how much Bourdieu s theory has to offer to contemporary feminism. Comprises a series of contributions from key contemporary feminist thinkers. Defines new territories for feminist theorizing. Transforms and advances Bourdieu s social and cultural theory
251 citations
TL;DR: The authors proposed a theoretical framework that characterises the mutual adaptation between formal routines and rules, on one hand, and actual performances, on the other, as iterative cycles of framing, overflowing and reframing of knowledge inputs and actions.
Abstract: Drawing from advances in Organisational Studies and recent debates within Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Financial Markets, this paper proposes a theoretical framework that characterises the mutual adaptation between formal routines and rules, on one hand, and actual performances, on the other, as iterative cycles of framing, overflowing and reframing of knowledge inputs and actions. This framework, combined with the ethnographic observation of the 'engineering freeze' process at a leading automotive manufacturer, allows us to advance Routine Theory by (1) capturing the dynamics of convergence and divergence between procedures and performances; and (2) improving our understanding of the influence of artefacts and distributed agencies on routine evolution.
250 citations
TL;DR: The role of material culture in families is explored in this paper, where a longitudinal case study extends Kopytoff's theory of singularization by explaining what occurs between the singularization of a focal object and its recommodification.
Abstract: Our study contributes to understanding the role of material culture in families. Findings from a longitudinal case study extend Kopytoff’s theory of singularization by explaining what occurs between the singularization of a focal object and its recommodification. We uncover processes that move an already singularized object in and out of a network of practices, objects, and spaces; identify forces that constrain and empower a singularized object’s agency within that network; and demonstrate network transformations that result from the focal object’s movement. This extension explains some paradoxical findings in consumer research: how objects are granted agency even while displaced, when irreplaceable objects can be replaced, and why families sometimes displace central identity practices.
250 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a longitudinal qualitative field study of a Web-based application development project was undertaken to develop an in-depth understanding of the collaborative practices that unfold among diverse professionals on ISD projects.
Abstract: Growth of Web-based applications has drawn a great number of diverse stakeholders and specialists into the information systems development (ISD) practice. Marketing, strategy, and graphic design professionals have joined technical developers, business managers, and users in the development of Web-based applications. Often, these specialists work for different organizations with distinct histories and cultures. A longitudinal, qualitative field study of a Web-based application development project was undertaken to develop an in-depth understanding of the collaborative practices that unfold among diverse professionals on ISD projects. The paper proposes that multiparty collaborative practice can be understood as constituting a "collective reflection-in-action" cycle through which an information systems (IS) design emerges as a result of agents producing, sharing, and reflecting on explicit objects. Depending on their control over the various economic and cultural (intellectual) resources brought to the project and developedon the project, agents influence the design in distinctive ways. They use this control to either "add to," "ignore," or "challenge" the work produced by others. Which of these modes of collective reflection-in-action are enacted on the project influences whose expertise will be reflected in the final design. Implications for the study of boundary objects, multiparty collaboration, and organizational learning in contemporary ISD are drawn.
249 citations