简介

My research addresses mathematical contexts for learning in two ways: (1) interdisciplinary contexts for algebra and (2) the linguistics of collaborative problem solving. Theoretically, my research is rooted in the anthropological field known as the ethnography of speaking, which takes verbal communication as the primary perspective on social life. The field focuses on artful, expressive performances carried out by purposeful social actors. Its major method is to account for the social meanings of speech through the analysis of linguistic form. If language affects people, their relationships, their beliefs and knowledge, then it must do so through formal features that we can hear and describe. In my publications, I have tried to identify perspectives and methods within the ethnography of speaking that offer conceptual and analytical precision to mathematics education research, specifically with regard to the ways in which teachers and students both create contexts for learning.