Unpacking the Rules of Class Discussion: Young Children Learning Mathematics within a Community of Inquiry

To promote equitable student outcomes some Bersteinian scholars advocate pedagogy that preserves the integrity of disciplinary learning, but supports interaction between knowledge fields. This learning, they contend, should be communicated through collective rather than individual endeavour. Collective endeavour can occur within communities of inquiry, which have documented potential to support students ’ mathematical learning. However, their impact on the mathematics education of very young children has not been explored. This paper uses data collected during an explanatory case study to demonstrate how a community of inquiry comprised of First Grade students and their teacher enables young children’s mathematical learning. The sweeping reforms advocated by mathematics educators over the last 25 years have included calls to break down the isolation of mathematics from other fields of knowledge. These calls have often been predicated on a desire to promote more equitable access to the “opportunities and options ” afforded to those who can both understand and use mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). As a result, reform-oriented curricula foreground the solution of ‘real-life ’ problems as a fundamental purpos