Sociomathematical norms, curriculum & some parallel ideas from linguistic pragmatics

In our readings for this week's class on sociomathematical norms, researchers talk about several ways to think about these norms:

• endorsed norms (the norms that teachers talk about as positive, or that are part of the official curriculum)

• enacted norms (how norms are played out by teachers and learners in the everyday life of the classroom, as observed by researchers or other outside observers)

• perceived norms (students' uptake or understanding of classroom norms as they experience and interpret them)

Those who are familiar with ways of thinking about aspects of The Educational Imagination) have thought about related ideas like "the mandated curriculum", "the intended curriculum", "the enacted curriculum", as well as "the hidden curriculum" (hidden from teachers, many times!) and "the null curriculum" (the many human knowledges that are omitted from the curriculum).
curriculum influenced by Elliot Eisner's work (especially in his book,

There is a similar way of thinking that comes from an area of linguistics called 'pragmatics' -- the study of language in use and in context.

In linguistic pragmatics, linguists may analyze a speaker's intentions in making an utterance and the utterance as a 'speech act'

in a number of interesting ways (from philosophers of language John Austin and John Searle):

• the locutionary force of the utterance -- the literal meanings of the words
• its illocutionary force -- what the speaker intends to say that goes beyond the literal meanings of the words
• its perlocutionary force -- what the speaker's utterance does in the world, or what it makes the listener do
• the listener's uptake -- how the listener perceives and interprets the utterance

This terminology may be helpful in thinking out how the intentions of teachers, learners and others are played out in classroom situations -- and how they relate to classroom sociomathematical norms!