How is cultural influence manifested in the formation of mathematics textbooks? A comparative case study of resource book series between Shanghai and England

Abstract

Focusing on issues about the development of mathematics textbooks from a cultural perspective, this study examined a widely-used curriculum resource series, One Lesson One Exercise, published in China, and its adapted English series, published in the UK, to explore how cultural influence is manifested in the two series of resource books. For the study we established a conceptual framework classifying culture into six types in relation to people’s beliefs, values and ways of interacting about them, for data collection and analysis. The results indicate that there exist considerable differences between the Chinese and the English series that are related to cultural factors. It appears that, to a large extent, culture plays an essential role in the development of mathematics textbooks. Concerning the different types of culture, the results show that most adaptations between the Chinese series and the English series are related to ‘ways of behaving and customs’ and ‘artifacts, flora and fauna’, followed by ‘identities’ and ‘geography’, and the least are related to ‘organisations’ and ‘history’. Based on the study, we argue that the relevance and importance of culture to the development of mathematics textbooks must not be underestimated, and more research in this direction is needed.