Responses and Ramifications

Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco

Chapter 6 reveals the critical role teachers play in translating class-based problem-solving strategies into unequal opportunities in school. Teachers almost always rewarded middle-class students’ strategies of influence. They did so by granting requests for assistance, accommodations, and attention and by creating conditions in which middle-class students (but not working-class students) felt comfortable making requests. That privileging of middle-class students, however, did not seem intentional. Teachers tried to support working-class students, but time and accountability pressures made it difficult for them to recognize students’ tacit struggles, forcing teachers to rely on students to voice their own needs. Teachers also relented in granting middle-class students’ requests, even when they seemed reluctant to do so. In those moments, teachers gave in because they wanted their students to feel supported and, more problematically, because it was often easier and less time-consuming to say “yes” and much riskier to say “no.”

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 862-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco

What role do children play in education and stratification? Are they merely passive recipients of unequal opportunities that schools and parents create for them? Or do they actively shape their own opportunities? Through a longitudinal, ethnographic study of one socioeconomically diverse, public elementary school, I show that children’s social-class backgrounds affect when and how they seek help in the classroom. Compared to their working-class peers, middle-class children request more help from teachers and do so using different strategies. Rather than wait for assistance, they call out or approach teachers directly, even interrupting to make requests. In doing so, middle-class children receive more help from teachers, spend less time waiting, and are better able to complete assignments. By demonstrating these skills and strategies, middle-class children create their own advantages and contribute to inequalities in the classroom. These findings have implications for theories of cultural capital, stratification, and social reproduction.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 793
Author(s):  
Manuel Santos-Trigo ◽  
Fernando Barrera-Mora ◽  
Matías Camacho-Machín

This study aims to document the extent to which the use of digital technology enhances and extends high school teachers’ problem-solving strategies when framing their teaching scenarios. The participants systematically relied on online developments such as Wikipedia to contextualize problem statements or to review involved concepts. Likewise, they activated GeoGebra’s affordances to construct and explore dynamic models of tasks. The Apollonius problem is used to illustrate and discuss how the participants contextualized the task and relied on technology affordances to construct and explore problems’ dynamic models. As a result, they exhibited and extended the domain of several problem-solving strategies including the use of simpler cases, dragging orderly objects, measuring objects attributes, and finding loci of some objects that shaped their approached to reasoning and solve problems.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Rubin

Working-class students tend to be less socially integrated at university than middle-class students (Rubin, 2012a). The present research investigated two potential reasons for this working-class social exclusion effect. First, working-class students may have fewer finances available to participate in social activities. Second, working-class students tend to be older than middle-class students and, consequently, they are likely to have more work and/or childcare commitments. These additional commitments may prevent them from attending campus which, in turn, reduces their opportunity for social integration. These predictions were confirmed among undergraduate students at an Australian university (N = 433) and a USA university (N = 416). Strategies for increasing working-class students’ social integration at university are discussed.


Author(s):  
William Enrique Poveda Fernández

RESUMENEn este artículo se analizan y discuten las ventajas y oportunidades que ofrece GeoGebra durante el proceso de resolución de problemas. En particular, se analizan y documentan las formas de razonamiento matemático exhibidas por ocho profesores de enseñanza secundaria de Costa Rica, relacionadas con la adquisición y el desarrollo de estrategias de resolución de problemas asociadas con el uso de GeoGebra. Para ello, se elaboró una propuesta de trabajo que comprende la construcción y la exploración de una representación del problema, y la formulación y la validación de conjeturas. Los resultados muestran que los profesores hicieron varias representaciones del problema, examinaron las propiedades y los atributos de los objetos matemáticos involucrados, realizaron conjeturas sobre las relaciones entre tales objetos, buscaron diferentes formas de comprobarlas basados en argumentos visuales y empíricos que proporciona GeoGebra. En general, los profesores usaron estrategias de medición de atributos de los objetos matemáticos y de examinación del rastro que deja un punto mientras se arrastra.Palabras claves: GeoGebra; Resolución de problemas; pensamiento matemático. RESUMOEste artigo analisa e discute as vantagens e oportunidades oferecidas pelo GeoGebra durante o processo de resolução de problemas. Em particular, as formas de raciocínio matemático exibidas por oito professores do ensino médio da Costa Rica, relacionadas à aquisição e desenvolvimento de estratégias de resolução de problemas associadas ao uso do GeoGebra, são analisadas e documentadas. Para isso, foi elaborada uma proposta de trabalho que inclui a construção e exploração de uma representação do problema, e a formulação e validação de conjecturas. Os resultados mostram que os professores fizeram várias representações do problema, examinaram as propriedades e atributos dos objetos matemáticos envolvidos, fizeram conjecturas sobre as relações entre esses objetos e procuraram diferentes formas de os verificar com base em argumentos visuais e empíricos fornecidos pelo GeoGebra. Em geral, os professores utilizaram estratégias para medir os atributos dos objetos matemáticos e para examinar o rasto que um ponto deixa enquanto é arrastado.Palavras-chave: GeoGebra; Resolução de problemas; pensamento matemático. ABSTRACTThis article analyzes and discusses the advantages and opportunities offered by GeoGebra during the problem-solving process. In particular, the mathematical reasoning forms exhibited by eight secondary school teachers in Costa Rica, related to the acquisition and development of problem solving strategies associated with the use of GeoGebra, are analyzed and documented. The proposal was developed that includes the elements: construction and exploration of a representation of the problem and formulation and validation of conjectures. The results show that teachers made several representations of the problem, examined the properties and attributes of the mathematical objects involved, made conjectures about the relationships between such objects, and sought different ways to check them based on visual and empirical arguments provided by GeoGebra. In general, the teachers used strategies to measure the attributes of the mathematical objects and to examine the trail that a point leaves while it is being dragged.Keywords: GeoGebra; Problem Solving; Mathematical Thinking.


Author(s):  
Jessica McCrory Calarco

Chapter 1 explores how parents coach children to use class-based strategies for managing challenges at school and how children internalize those lessons. Middle-class parents felt a deep responsibility for their children’s academic success, and they taught children to secure that success using strategies of influence. Middle-class children thereby learned that when they encountered problems at school, they should use their teachers as resources, avoid consequences, and be assertive in seeking support. Working-class parents felt primarily responsible for their children’s character development. Reflecting on their own experience in school, they worried that teachers might punish students who complained or sought special favors. Thus, working-class parents taught their children to practice strategies of deference. As a result, working-class students learned to treat teachers with respect, take responsibility for their actions, and tackle problems on their own.


2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Pearce ◽  
Barry Down ◽  
Elizabeth Moore

Through the use of narrative portraits this paper discusses social class and identity, as working-class university students perceive them. With government policy encouraging wider participation rates from under-represented groups of people within the university sector, working-class students have found themselves to be the objects of much research. Working-class students are, for the most part, studied as though they are docile bodies, unable to participate in the construction of who they are, and working-class accounts of university experiences are quite often compared to the middle-class norms. This paper explores how working-class students see themselves within the university culture. Working-class students' voices and stories form the focus of this paper, in which the language of ‘disadvantage’ is dealt with and the ideologies of class identity explored.


2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Kosstrin

Anna Sokolow (1910–2000), an American Jewish choreographer known for her social statements, led the workers dance movement and performed as a soloist with Martha Graham. She imbued her dancesStrange American Funeral(1935) andCase History No.—(1937) with proletarian ideology that spoke to 1930s working- and middle-class audiences aligned with values of revolutionary and modern dance. These choreographies spoke to a political atmosphere focused on social justice while they appealed to a broad dance-going public. Sokolow's Graham training engendered a modernist aesthetic in her choreography that led critics to consider her work universal instead of marked as coming from a working-class left-wing Jewish dancer. This article argues that while narratives about Sokolow's work downplay her Communist affiliations, these ideals played a critical role in her choreography and in her navigation of international Communist circles. As Sokolow's choreography reinforced her politics, so too did her affiliations support her dance work.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Rubin

The present research tested the hypotheses that (a) working-class students have fewer friends at university than middle-class students, and (b) this social class difference occurs because working-class students tend to be older than middle-class students. A sample of 376 first-year undergraduate students from an Australian university completed an online survey that contained measures of social class and age as well as quality and quantity of actual and desired friendship at university. Consistent with predictions, age differences significantly mediated social class differences in friendship. The Discussion focuses on potential policy implications for improving working-class students’ friendships at university in order to improve their transition and retention.


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