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Immigrant Students’ Stories About Learning Mathematics in Groups

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Abstract

Focusing on the context of linguistically and racially heterogeneous Canadian schools, this article describes the “figured worlds” as discussed by Holland, Skinner, Lachicotte Jr, & Cain (1998, p. 52) of group work: the stories, characters, and roles that students envisioned in the setting of group work. The study was conducted in linguistically and racially diverse mathematics classrooms wherein group work was regularly used. We combined various methods, including questionnaires on group work experiences, video-recorded group work interactions of participants’ mathematics problem solving, and video-mediated interviews, in order to examine participants’ experiences with group work from multiple angles. In this context, most students, including newly arrived immigrant students, reported benefiting from group work and working with others. Focusing on immigrant students, our findings also offer insights into how students interpreted particular segments of video, from their figured worlds of group work in school. We depict how figured worlds of group work and friendship were intertwined, and how figured worlds of successful group work and the rule of equal participation interacted. Based on our findings, we discuss the importance of negotiating the multifaceted meanings of “success” in group work for mathematics learning.

Résumé

Dans le contexte d’écoles canadiennes hétérogènes sur les plans linguistique et racial, cet article décrit les « mondes représentés » (Holland, Skinner, Lachicotte Jr, et Cain 1998, p.52) ayant trait au travail en groupe : les récits, les personnages et les rôles envisagés par les étudiants dans l’organisation du travail en groupe. L’étude a été menée dans des classes de mathématiques de composition linguistique et raciale hétérogène, où le travail en groupe était fréquent. Afin d’analyser selon de multiples points de vue les expériences de travail en groupe vécues par les participants, nous avons combiné différentes méthodes, y compris des questionnaires sur les expériences de travail en groupe, l’enregistrement vidéo d’interactions des participants lors de séances de travail en groupe pour résoudre des problèmes mathématiques, et des entrevues au cours desquelles les étudiants ont pu visionner et commenter certains segments de leurs interactions filmées. Dans ce contexte, la plupart des étudiants, y compris les immigrants nouvellement arrivés, affirment avoir bénéficié du travail en groupe et du fait de travailler en collaboration avec d’autres. Étant centrés sur les étudiants immigrants, nos résultats fournissent aussi des observations utiles sur les façons dont les étudiants interprètent certains segments vidéo à partir de leur « monde représenté » ayant trait au travail en groupe à l’école. Nous montrons comment les mondes représentés concernant le travail en groupe et les liens d’amitié sont inter-reliés, et comment les mondes représentés du travail en groupe réussi/efficace interagissent avec la règle de la participation égale et équitable. Sur la base de nos résultats, nous nous penchons sur l’importance de la négociation des multiples facettes du sens donné à la réussite en matière de travail en groupe.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate teachers and students who shared their voices with us through this study. We would like to thank the support by Teresa Fowler and Stephanie Innes at the earlier stages of data collection.

Funding

This study was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under the Grant no. 403-2015-00151. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed herein are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, EDT 840, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Miwa Aoki Takeuchi, Venise Bryan, Silvana Valera & Shima Dadkhahfard

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  1. Miwa Aoki Takeuchi
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  2. Venise Bryan
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Correspondence to Miwa Aoki Takeuchi.

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Takeuchi, M.A., Bryan, V., Valera, S. et al. Immigrant Students’ Stories About Learning Mathematics in Groups. Can. J. Sci. Math. Techn. Educ. 19, 237–253 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42330-019-00056-8

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