Navigating Numeracies

Springer has published a new book with a focus on low achieving pupils in numeracy in a school context. The book is written by Brian Street, Dave Baker and Alison Tomlin, and it is entitled Navigating Numeracies. Here is a copy of the publisher's description of the book:

The book aims to further understanding of why some pupils have low achievement in numeracy in the school context. The authors aim to achieve this by a relatively original view that focuses on numeracy as a social practice. They report on their investigations into the meanings and uses of numeracy in school and home and community contexts, using ethnographic-style approaches, including formal and informal interviews and observations. The book will be useful for policy, practice and further research into the teaching and learning of mathematics in schools. It will therefore be of interest to policy makers, teachers and practitioners, academics and practitioners in teacher education, education researchers, and parents and community leaders.

Navigating Numeracies

Springer has published a new book with a focus on low achieving pupils in numeracy in a school context. The book is written by Brian Street, Dave Baker and Alison Tomlin, and it is entitled Navigating Numeracies. Here is a copy of the publisher's description of the book:

The book aims to further understanding of why some pupils have low achievement in numeracy in the school context. The authors aim to achieve this by a relatively original view that focuses on numeracy as a social practice. They report on their investigations into the meanings and uses of numeracy in school and home and community contexts, using ethnographic-style approaches, including formal and informal interviews and observations. The book will be useful for policy, practice and further research into the teaching and learning of mathematics in schools. It will therefore be of interest to policy makers, teachers and practitioners, academics and practitioners in teacher education, education researchers, and parents and community leaders.

TPM Discussion of Book on Geoffrey Canada

This week, TPM Cafe is holding a book discussion of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America, which I mentioned a few days ago. I haven't had time to read much of the discussion, and I haven't read the book, but this is likely an important book at a critical moment in our thinking about educational reform.

Publisher's Weekly description (via Amazon):

New York Times journalist Tough profiles educational visionary Geoffrey Canada, whose Harlem Children's Zone—currently serving more than 7,000 children and encompassing 97 city blocks—represents an audacious effort to end poverty within underserved communities.

Canada's radical experiment is predicated upon changing everything in these communities—creating an interlocking web of services targeted at the poorest and least likely to succeed children: establishing programs to prepare and support parents, a demanding k-8 charter school and a range of after-school programs for high school students.

Tough adeptly integrates the intensely personal stories of the staff, students and teachers of the Children's Zone with expert opinions and the broiling debates over poverty, race and education. The author's admiration for Canada and his social experiment is obvious yet tempered by journalistic restraint as he summarizes the current understanding of the causes of poverty and academic underperformance—and their remedies. Smoothly narrated, affecting and heartening, this book gives readers a solid look at the problems facing poor communities and their reformers, as well as good cause to be optimistic about the future.