Review_Author: Jane C. Folske
Book_Author: Terezinha Nunes, Analucia Dias Schliemann, David William Carraher
Book_Title: Street mathematics and school mathematics
Date: 4/25/99
Time: 11:16:10 AM
Remote Name: 151.197.127.75
mailto:
Nunes, Schliemann & Carraher (1993) offer a thorough investigation of the practice of and relationship between street mathematics and school mathematics in this well-organized, interesting book. The researchers set forth as their main goal the establishment of connections between three types of mathematics: mathematics constructed by children outside of school, mathematics embedded in everyday cultural practices and mathematics that school aims to teach in the classroom.
To accomplish this goal, the researchers began by establishing a working definition of street mathematics. Some explicit definitions gleaned from t he literature include: solving problems intertwined in everyday activities, mathematics as a means to accomplishing some other goal and approaches to problem solving that are adaptations to the goals and conditions of the activities underway. Next, the researchers look for conditions which allow them to observe both street mathematics and school mathematics in the same subjects. They interview subjects who are likely to know one type of mathematics better than the other and try to create conditions that lead the same subjects into using one type or the other.
Several studies are presented in the book. The details of these various studies are beyond the scope of this review, but the potential reader should be informed that each study leads logically to the next study so that the reader gains a clear understanding of how the research progressed. For example, the premier study involved interviews of 5 young Brazilian street vendors (ages 9 through 15) in which the interviewers acted as "customers" and the vendors were asked to articulate the steps through which they reasoned to arrive at answers to questions such as the following example:
Customer: How much is one cocunut? M.: Thirty-five. Customer: I'd like ten. How much is that? M.: [Pause] Three will be one hundred and five; with three more, that will be two hundred and ten. [Pause] I need four more. That is...[Pause] three hundred and fifteen...I think it is three hundred and fifty (pp. 18-19).
In addition to these informal questions, the researchers asked the vendors to perform computational arithmetic problems such as those which might be asked in school. The subjects performed significantly better on the informal test than on the computational problems. The researchers look at two types of theory which could explain the within-individual differences in performance found in this study (social-interactionist and social-cognitive theory). The design of the Brazilian street vendor study did not allow the researchers to determine which of these theories offers a better explanation. This situation lead to the next study. This type of progression from one study to the next is typical of the book.
Briefly, the remaining studies in the book look at issues such as individual differences in performance on written and oral arithmetic tasks, loss versus preservation of meaning and situational representation of problems. Each study focuses in on some aspect of the relationship between street mathematics and school mathematics. Each study uncovers individual differences in performance on the two types of mathematics.
The research described in the book is thorough, clearly described and well designed. The researchers are cautious in terms of drawing conclusions and spent considerable effort on designing a series of studies to hone in on various aspects of cognition and mathematical computation performance.
The message at the end of the book to researchers and educators is that more effort is needed to understand the models that people build and to design theories of learning and routines for teaching that effectively use these models. The book is well worth reading if you are interested in cognition embedded in social practices involving mathematics. The researchers perspective is decidedly sociocultural, although they do not neglect to frame some of their discussion using a Piagetian model. The use of theories of other various theoreticians in the area of cognition (e.g., Vygotsky and Luria) is helpful for the reader to gain an understanding of the basis for the theories tested by the studies in the book. I recommend this book for the reader who wishes to gain an understanding of current theory of street and school mathematics in the context of plenty of examples of studies.