Changes in school mathematics knowledge in Greece: a Bernsteinian analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the changes that took place in school mathematics knowledge for pupils aged six and seven (first grade of Greek elementary school) and its pedagogical approach, which took shape following the reforms of the mathematics curricula in 1982 and 2003. Our analysis is based on Bernstein’s theoretical framework on pedagogic discourse and Dowling’s theoretical framework on textual domains. The results showed that there are differences between the 1982 and 2003 reforms, in terms both of the content of mathematics knowledge, as well as of the forms of pedagogic interaction between the teacher and the pupil.

Keywords:

• school mathematics knowledge
• Bernsteinian analysis
• educational reforms
• textual domains

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments.

Notes

1. In the Greek educational system, textbooks are proposed by the Pedagogical Institute, an agency under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, and are the same for all schools. These textbooks are accompanied by a corresponding teacher’s book, explicitly designating the way of teaching.

2. There exist studies of elementary schools in South Africa that have used the Bernsteinian theory and have shown that focusing the teaching of mathematics on everyday knowledge or the public domain impedes access to the esoteric domain of mathematics knowledge (see Hoadley 2007, 2008; Hoadley and Ensor 2009; Reeves and Muller 2005).