Learning mathematics in first-grade classrooms: On whose authority?

Integral to knowing mathematics is an understanding of how mathematical ideas are generated and validated. In mathematics classrooms, teachers socialize this understanding by establishing discourse patterns and participatory structures in which various sources - the teacher, the text, the discipline of mathematics, or the community of learners - are implicitly and explicitly credited with the authority to develop and validate mathematical ideas. In the present investigation, the authors focused on classroom discourse processes and participatory structures that grant sources of mathematical authority in 6 first-grade classrooms. In general, teachers firmly and with few exceptions positioned themselves as the sole mathematical authority in their classrooms. Yet, the authors found significant exceptions in 1 teacher's lessons, with these exceptions inspiring possibilities in accomplishing the shift from a formal to a growth-and-change tradition of socializing students into the discipline of mathematics.