Abstract
The importance of communication for the learning of mathematics is well established in mathematics education literature. The context of the reported inquiry looked beyond cognition in mathematics class related to specific content to explore how students could develop learning processes to improve their approach to high school mathematics. Conversation, as a specialized construct of communication, holds promise to inform how teachers and students could attend to growth in learning processes and selves in the context of mathematics class. The curriculum inquiry first identified key studies from mathematics education which use conversation as context for students’ mathematical learning. Philosophical approaches that underpinned the studies were examined, such as hermeneutics, narrative, dialogism, care, epistemological frames, and enactivism. The philosophical traditions contained assumptions and conceptualizations of conversation which provided theoretical potency for this type of communicative act in mathematics class. The results of synthesis of the philosophical traditions indicates that conversation can be an effective space for high school mathematics students in engaging in learning to learn mathematics given consideration for five key features, learning and growth as aim, and the relational space of conversations.
