Thoughts on different types of mathematical enculturation at the secondary-tertiary transition

Overview & Synopsis

In this paper, different courses of mathematical enculturation during the transition from school- to university-level mathematics are identified and illustrated. To achieve this, we reinterpret mathematical enculturation within a socio-cultural perspective of mathematics, viewing the learning of mathematics as a process of transformative education. We consider experiences of foreignness and crisis that arise due to cultural differences between educational institutions during the secondary-tertiary transition. On this basis, different responses to these experiences can be distinguished: (a) rejective, (b) assimilative or (c) productive.