Participation and Non-Participation in Mathematics Classrooms

Active student engagement in mathematics is promoted in several contemporary policy documents. Recent international reports (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD]) and national, (Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs [DETYA], 2001) emphasised the need to improve mathematics teaching with a focus on learning and participation. The mathematics results from the Program for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2003 (OECD, 2004) the practices utilised in schools had a "substantial" (p. 26) effect on student learning and participation in mathematics. To understand how the practices affect student learning and participation, this paper discusses the use of critical discourse theory and a social theory of learning. In doing so, the important elements of these theories, that is, discourse, discursive practice, and subject position, have been linked to identity, participation and non-participation in classrooms. This articulation serves as a framework for understanding the complexity of practices in mathematics classrooms. It also serves as the platform to further understand the practices influential to participation and non-participation in and from such learning communities. The paper draws on several accounts from a larger study of students’ accounts of their experiences of learning mathematics. At the time, the students were enrolled in a Youth Reconnected Program. This program was designed to re-engage students with education