"We all play teacher": a study of student discourse in adult numeracy classrooms.

In this study, the emerging methodology of linguistic ethnography is applied
to the under-researched setting of the adult numeracy classroom.
Students' naturally-occurring discourse is audio-recorded during
mathematical collaborative groupwork, and analysed to provide privileged
insights not always apparent through observing teacher-led interaction. In
particular, the "funds of knowledge" brought by students to their formal
learning is investigated, and findings are related to Bourdieu's concepts of
cultural capital and habitus, and Bernstein' theories of pedagogic discourse.
Participating students were found rarely to draw spontaneously on
numeracy funds of knowledge, and tended to ignore the supposedly "reallife"
contexts presented by traditional word problems. However, some
alternative activities did encourage students to relate classroom learning
more to out-of-classroom practices, and the implications of these for
pedagogy are discussed. The students were also found to draw on a broad
repertoire of linguistic resources to express uncertainty and anxiety; to
enhance group cohesion; to elicit contributions from other students; and to
ease interactions with humour. However, students additionally brought to
the classroom a "schooled habitus" which tended to constrain their
discourse and activities to curricular expectations. A categorisation of
students' knowledge contributions into "disruptive" and "conformative" is
proposed.
The study concludes that collaborative groupwork can be highly effective for
adult numeracy learners, with participating classrooms demonstrating high
rates of retention and achievement, but further research is urgently needed
to extend these benefits to students with disabilities, learning difficulties
and English as a second language. It further suggests that traditional word
problems are not effective in helping learners relate mathematical skills to
everyday numeracy practices.
However, in introducing innovative and potentially more effective
pedagogies, it is recommended that the schooled habitus of adults be taken
into account. In particular, pedagogies designed for children and young
people may not transfer unproblematically to adult classrooms.