Mathematical Practices In And Across School Contexts

This paper describes some mathematical practices in and across school contexts in South Africa. Through this description, I challenge a decontextualised notion of schooling and so too a decontextualised notion of mathematical practices in school. Through examples of mathematical practices within and across school contexts in South Africa, I illustrate what is well known in the field of sociology of education – that school mathematics and its associated practices are social at their core. They are a function of how knowledge in society is selected, transmitted and evaluated through schooling. These are socio-political processes and so vary considerably within and across social contexts, and inevitable function of the distribution of power and social control in society (Bernstein, 1996).