3477

Laurence Delacour

philosophy of mathematics education

2020

36

discourse , expectation , mathematics , preschool teacher , subjectivity

Preschool teachers have the important task of stimulating children in their development and preparing them for future schooling and lifelong learning. Many Swedish preschools today are characterized by great linguistic diversity among children and teachers. Many studies highlight the great benefits that multilingual children can gain from being able to use their native languages as resources when they learn other subjects, such as mathematics. This makes multilingual preschool teachers key players in today's education policy. For this research, I interviewed and followed a multilingual preschool teacher of immigrant background, anonymised as “Kajal”. I analysed Kajal's talk about and work with mathematics to understand what she was able to do and how she shaped her subjectivity as she navigated the expectations of various actors and prevailing norms in society.