As to parents who are teachers being more apt to link, all but one teacher
was a parent and yet only one linked. However, the one who linked the least
in any subject was the nonparent and the one who linked said she did
because she'd seen how easily her kids could be turned off math so looked
for ways to personalize.
Many teachers echoed the cultural view of math as remote from life by
answering my question of why they didn't link by saying they'd never even
thought of the possibility and then pausing and asking me how one would do
that. They said they naturally linked in language arts as it was so
obvious but couldn't even think of links in their own lives to math.
I'm coming around to looking at all these variables as part of the larger
picture of what it means to be in a community of practice and to ask what
community we are forming in math classes. Is it a community of school
math? (most fall here) or a community of mathematicians (I think the class
where links were made falls here)? Other discussions on xmca are feeding
in nicely here. More thoughts are welcome. (By the way, I am Jacque,
short for Jacqueline - a woman. Usually I find it advantageous that I'm
assumed to be male, but recently I was told an article I submitted to a
journal would have been used in a special issue of all women authors but
they didn't know I was female until too late! )
Jacque