Journal of Scholastic Inquiry: Education
Volume 9, Page 70
mathematics, allow them to use their household funds of knowledge i.e. their accumulated skills and abilities that derive from the communities from which they come from (Gonzalez et al., 2005). Hernandez (1999) posited that an integral factor contributing to the marked difference between the achievement of Latinos and the majority group is a school’s decision not to allow the child’s familiar language, Spanish, as well as their culture, talents, and skills as a resource for articulating the meaning attributed to the math concept. Noted in Civil (2008), a corollary study focused on equity across different countries found that schools and classroom teachers in Greece either were unaware or minimized the [community] knowledge that minority students brought with them to school. As part of the study, Civil reported Vietnamese and Iranian migrant students in Australia used their primary languages when engaging with mathematical ideas; but, in many instances, the classroom teachers were unaware the students were intentionally drawing upon their own language to determine the problem solution. Civil offered the following analysis, “Language of mathematics is best taught by starting with students’ informal language and gradually moving to the precision of mathematical language” (p. 8). In addressing the connection between successful mathematics experiences and migrant students, Reyes and Fletcher (2003) indicated that state-mandated guidelines can lead to institutional practices that emphasize drill and practice versus mathematical reasoning. Under these classroom mathematics practices, students become passive learners; ultimately come to depend on the teacher’s knowledge; and see no connection between mathematics and their everyday lives. All too often, students from poor communities have been relegated to lowertrack classes (Secada et al., 1999). Likewise, Silver and Stein (1996) purported that poor and minority students have been disproportionately represented in more complicated mathematics