Richard Barwell (2002)
This research the author conducted in the UK examines short conversations between two
bilingual students who have Pakistani backgrounds, to explore their identity
and empowerment in mathematics classrooms. His analysis illustrates how the
participating students use their identity category to connect their work of
writing word problems to their experience in real world. In their dialogues,
they mainly referred to the aspects of Arabic and Islamic practice with
comparing “Muslims” and “Englishmen (they call British people Englishmen in
their conversation)”. The author argues
that the task in this study gave the students the opportunity to bring and
share their experiences with others. Although word problems tend to be seen as challenging
in mathematics for bilingual students to make sense of, the interactions
between two Pakistani students became a meaningful
activity for them.
Comment
As I read other articles written by
Barwell, this study might be one of his large
studies (I guess his doctoral dissertation). In addition to the two
participating students in this paper, there was a variety of students participated in this experiment. My question is, regarding negotiations of identity
and their empowerment in mathematical
discussions, how the non-British students worked with British students when
writing word problems. Are there any cultural conflicts or negotiations? If so,
how do they react/cope it? Many studies in the U.S. and Spain show social inequity
in mathematical discussions between local
and immigrant students. I suppose those phenomena might be seen in the UK as well.
Additionally, what I need to explore if my dissertation includes the
aspect of “bilingual” is to clarify my concepts of bilingual (and bicultural).
Can my students who are born in Canada be defined as a bilingual student? Even
the same Canada-born students, some of them can use Japanese as well as the
native Japanese level while others are suffering from the Japanese language when learning.
