Overview

Description

COURSE DETAILS:

Almost every piece of mathematics education research, every doctoral dissertation, is based on language data to some greater or lesser extent, where ‘language’ needs to be more or less broadly interpreted. Whether these data consist of oral interviews, transcripts of classroom video recordings, textbooks (ancient or modern), student written responses to tasks, mathematicians’ writings or teacher study group recordings, you need to be able to work with and analyse language data at length and at depth. One of the more challenging parts of the successful carrying out of a doctoral study involves bringing theoretical ideas and frames to bear upon language data in order to illuminate them, to bring aspects to light that might otherwise have been left unnoticed or ignored. Another aspect of carrying out a doctoral study that is well worthy of our consideration has to do with questions of method and manner of data ‘collection’/generation/creation, as well as its examination and analysis. What was done, what was not done and (for both) why? 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

This course will primarily focus on our collective examination and dissection of published reports of studies whose authors have done interesting things in relation to examining and analyzing language data (mostly in mathematics education contexts), in order to make claims about their declared phenomena of interest. We will focus both on content and on method in these accounts, and the (hopefully) interesting interaction between the two. The readings will also provide access to sets of data for us to explore. The course’s primary goals are to help you to become a better and more critical reader of research literature, as well as a better undertaker of mathematics education research yourself.  

There will be one additional focus and that is on the nature of academic writing within mathematics education. The required text, Disciplinary Discourses, relates primarily to this strand, though it too provides an instance of research activity on language data (albeit not specifically mathematics education data), and can be explored from that perspective as well. 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: