Cultural diversity as a resource or an obstacle for teaching practices in multicultural milieu: experience of a training course for Italian teachers about Chinese Shuxue

Abstract

This contribution, examining the increasing presence at school of East-Asian students (Chinese in particular) and the related didactical complexity rising from the contemporary presence of Western and non Western cultural heritages, discusses some historical, epistemological and linguistic aspects of Chinese culture and the related Shuxue (Mathematics) education. These were presented to Italian teachers and educators during a training course organized by the authors with the aim of answering teachers’ needs (K-12) for training about the didactical problematic of teaching in multicultural milieu (in particular with Chinese students). The laboratory activities designed and implemented in an ad hoc way by the authors, gave trainers the opportunity to construct a general epistemological framework about Chinese culture and to “compare” it with their own cultural reference. This chance offered them some key lens useful to critically reread and better understand the different cognitive styles of their Chinese and Italian students in mathematics. Thanks to the training course they learned how to refer to cultural diversity as a resource for their teaching activities and not as an obstacle.