Chapter 7: Latino/A Bilingual Elementary Students Pose and Investigate Problems Grounded in Community Settings

Many young students experience the school curriculum as disconnected from their lives and experiences (Chazan, 2000; Moll & Ruiz, 2002; Noddings, 1993; Valenzuela, 1999). The largely abstract and decontextualized nature of school mathematics provides little indication of how students or their communities will benefit from the content they learn (Martin, 2000). This phenomenon is particularly true for low-income students of color, whose experiences, languages, and ways of knowing are marginalized by mainstream curricula (Ladson-Billings, 1998; Nieto, 1999; Tate, 1995).

In contrast to these findings, the student interview presented in Excerpt 7.1, captured during an interview (personal communication, May 22, 2007), describes one student’s experience with mathematics in an afterschool mathematics club. In the excerpt, Elías, a fourth-grade bilingual Latino student, reflected on his experiences participating in an after-school mathematics club. He commented on what he learned during a project that involved investigating a neighborhood custom auto shop.