WORD PROBLEMS AND MAKE-BELIEVE: USING FRAME ANALYSIS AND ETHNOMETHODOLOGY TO EXPLORE ASPECTS OF THE CULTURE OF SCHOOLING

• Authors: Benincasa Luciana
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper applies Goffman’s frame analysis and ethnomethodology to student performance on mathematical word problems. In educational research, frame analysis has usually been limited to primary frames. Instead, in this paper the author focuses on the kind of secondary frame that Goffman calls ‘utilitarian make-believe’. The data consist of a fragment of verbal interaction between a teacher and a 12-year-old pupil during an oral mathematics exam. Word problems introduce pupils to a make-believe world by evoking the idea of ‘as-ifness’. The text consists only of ‘filler words’ because what really matters are the figures. Word problems and possibly other aspects of schooling can be interpreted in terms of a utilitarian make-believe key. Readiness to adopt this make-believe frame when required may be the difference between school success and failure. She argues that maths achievement takes more than just ‘being good with numbers’. It is a joint enterprise of people interacting within a culturally-shaped setting, organized so as to make some phenomena stand out rather than others. Finally, the author argues that ‘word problems and possibly other ‘school genres’ could be added to the list of utilitarian make-believe frames provided by Goffman.

Keywords

EN

FRAME ANALYSIS; MAKE-BELIEVE; CULTURE OF SCHOOLING; WORD PROBLEMS; ETHNOMETHODOLOGY

• Publisher: Faculty of Education, Trnava University
• Journal: Pedagogický časopis (Journal of Pedagogy)
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 77 - 99

Contributors

author

Benincasa Luciana

• University of Ioannina, Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology, Dourouti 45110, Ioannina, Greece

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/jped-2017-0010