Reproduction of social inequality through selection and transmission of pedagogic messages in Chinese mathematics classrooms

Abstract

This article investigates how social inequality is reproduced through the recontextualization of mathematics pedagogy, using Dowling’s social activity method as an analytical framework. The study identifies the selection and transmission of pedagogic messages as a potential pathway. Findings indicate that teachers in upper-stream schools favour abstract, context-independent messages and metonymically organize tasks to maintain their messages in esoteric mathematical domain. In contrast, their middle- and bottom-streams counterparts often select everyday, context-dependent tasks and assemble tasks metaphorically, limiting students’ access to the abstract mathematical system. These results suggest that class differences are transformed and legitimized through the differential selection and transmission of pedagogic messages, shaping students’ social consciousness in different ways and perpetuating social stratification.