This article explores the potential uses and extensions of sociocultural theoretical perspectives for integrating and further developing research on race, culture, and learning. Two bodies of literature are discussed and synthesized: (1) sociocultural theory and (2) studies on race, culture, and learning. The article proposes how a sociocultural lens might provide insight and suggests new lines of research on issues of race, culture, and learning. The authors argue for the extension of each of four lines of research in the sociocultural tradition: a concern with multiple levels of analysis, cultural practices as a unit of analysis, tools and artifacts as mediating action, and learning as shifts in social relations. In doing so, the authors raise critical questions for the field of education to consider.

This paper investigates the construction of systems of competence in two middle school mathematics classrooms. Drawing on analyses of discourse from videotaped classroom sessions, this paper documents the ways that agency and accountability were distributed in the classrooms through interactions between the teachers and students as they worked on mathematical content. In doing so, we problematize the assumption that competencies are simply attributes of individuals that can be externally defined. Instead, we propose a concept of individual competence as an attribute of a person's participation in an activity system such as a classroom. In this perspective, what counts as "competent" gets constructed in particular classrooms, and can therefore look very different from setting to setting. The implications of the ways that competence can be defined are discussed in terms of future research and equitable learning outcomes.

This study explored support for engagement in 2 settings: a high school basketball team and high school mathematics classrooms. Specifically, the study examined 3 aspects of these practices: (a) access to the domain, (b) opportunities to take on integral roles, and (c) opportunities for self-expression in the practice. Drawing on videotape and interview data from 2 African American high school students' participation in basketball and mathematics class, as well as interviews with players'teachers and coaches, this article analyzes how these 3 aspects of practices afforded differential engagement across settings. Findings indicated that the practice of basketball supported deep engagement as players had greater access to an understanding of the domain, were assigned and took up a unique role that was integral to the practice, and had opportunities to express themselves and feel competent. The high school mathematics classroom differentially afforded these opportunities, with 1 student taking them up and the other being unable to, and thus being less engaged. Potential implications of these 3 aspects of the practices for students' practice-linked identities and learning are discussed.Studies of learning in settings outside of school have documented differences in individuals' abilities to solve problems across settings, illustrating that cognition

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This paper is centered on creating equitable opportunities for learners in mathematics education. Through observations of teacher practice, the paper seeks to theorize how teachers enact their dispositions toward mathematics instruction. These observed propensities, in relation to teachers' aims for students to "take up their space" in and beyond the mathematics classroom, then inform a model of equitable mathematics instruction. Teachers' dispositions are considered in relation to Mason's discipline of noticing and Bourdieu's notion of the symbolic violence of dominant discourses.