Greatness in the Math Corps family: Integrating ethnographic, corpus, and cognitive approaches to a cultural model

Chrisomalis, Stephen

doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2013.03.007

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…One of the most evident aspects of the Math Corps culture is its focus on the culturally salient concept of greatness (Chrisomalis, 2013). My research began without any such focus, but I did begin with an interest in investigating student self-esteem and attitudes toward mathematics achievement.…”

Section: The Greatness Cultural Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I do not think that identifying that greatness is a culturally relevant keyword required any particular cognitive methodology. In assemblies, staff used the word greatness at a rate 674 times its occurrence in spoken American English (by comparing with general corpora such as the Corpus of Contemporary American English; Chrisomalis, 2013, p. 165). One does not need to be a particularly good ethnographer to notice such a common word in discourse!…”

Section: The Greatness Cultural Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A linguistic analysis of a cultural model of mathematical achievement in an American community of practice.

Chrisomalis

2023

Qualitative Psychology

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The use of cultural consensus analysis to verify cultural models represents a major advance to assess the degree to which members of some community share common responses to propositions. But because knowledge is not stored and used in the sorts of propositional knowledge that consensus analysis employs, quantitative consensus analysis alone is likely insufficient to understand cognitive models underlying motivation, attention, and decision making. A complementary approach is outlined, drawing on natural language data to investigate how linguistic structures and metaphorical associations, used in persistent ways by members of a community, shape cognition. Using two extended analyses drawn from an ethnographic study of the Math Corps, a mathematical community of practice centered in Detroit, Michigan, it is demonstrated that patterned linguistic structures help elucidate the cognitive structure of the cultural model for achievement and intelligence widely shared in this specific community. This approach integrates linguistic data of the sort achievable ethnographically into the suite of methods employable for directly verifying cultural sharing, complementing rather than replacing consensus analysis.

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Section: The Greatness Cultural Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Greatness Cultural Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

A linguistic analysis of a cultural model of mathematical achievement in an American community of practice.

Chrisomalis

2023

Qualitative Psychology

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“…This continuity is conducive to transmission of ideas, speech patterns, and practices; although there is a hierarchical organizational structure to the program, most daily authority is vested in the TAs and CIs, which differentiates Math Corps from other, similar programs to which it might outwardly appear similar. Additionally, elsewhere it has been demonstrated that student confidence and personal success are bolstered using a set of conceptual and metaphorical relations surrounding the concept of greatness , used as part of a moral and social discourse of self-improvement (Chrisomalis 2013).…”

Section: Math Corps As a Community Of Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

What's so improper about fractions? Prescriptivism and language socialization at Math Corps

Chrisomalis

2015

Lang. Soc.

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Mathematical prescriptivism is a language ideology found in school mathematics that uses a discourse of rationality to proscribe language forms perceived as illogical or inefficient. The present study is based on a three-year ethnographic investigation of Math Corps, a community of practice in Detroit, Michigan, in which prescriptive language in the classroom is used both to highlight beneficial algorithms and to build social solidarity. Although motivated by the analogy with English orthographic reform, prescriptivism at Math Corps avoids potentially harmful criticism of community members of the sort often experienced by African American students. A playful linguistic frame, the prescriptive melodrama, highlights valued prescriptions, thereby enculturating students into the locally preferred register, the ‘Math Corps way’, which encompasses social, moral, linguistic, and mathematical practices and norms. A sociolinguistic and anthropological perspective on prescriptivism within communities of practice highlights positive alternatives to the universalizing prescriptions found in other English contexts. (Prescriptivism, language ideology, mathematics education, community of practice, Math Corps, linguistic anthropology, language socialization)*

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The Linguistic Codification and Verification of Cultural Models

Chrisomalis

2024

Culture, Mind, and Society

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Greatness in the Math Corps family: Integrating ethnographic, corpus, and cognitive approaches to a cultural model

Cited by 5 publications

References 24 publications

A linguistic analysis of a cultural model of mathematical achievement in an American community of practice.

A linguistic analysis of a cultural model of mathematical achievement in an American community of practice.

What's so improper about fractions? Prescriptivism and language socialization at Math Corps

The Linguistic Codification and Verification of Cultural Models

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