ABSTRACT

This paper presents an exploratory study of English and Swedish teachers’ perspectives on the role of homework in year-one children’s learning of number. In order to ensure cultural integrity, data were analysed independently by two colleagues in each context. Analyses yielded three broad but cross-culturally common themes reflecting culturally situated notions of common sense. These concerned the existence of homework, the purpose of homework and the role of parents in homework’s completion. While homework was unproblematic for all English teachers, half the Swedish cohort spoke against it, arguing that variation in home background would compromise principles of equity. All teachers who set homework, whether English or Swedish, spoke of homework as a means of supporting children at risk of falling behind their peers, a process by which children practice routine skills. English teachers’ homework-related justifications were located in a discourse of target setting that was invisible in the Swedish.

摘要

本文介绍了英语和瑞典语教师对家庭作业在一年级儿童数字学习中的作用的看法的探索性研究。为了确保文化完整性，两名同事在每种情况下独立分析数据。分析产生了三个广泛但跨文化的共同主题，反映了文化定位的常识概念。这些涉及家庭作业的存在、家庭作业的目的以及父母在家庭作业完成中的作用。虽然家庭作业对所有英语教师来说都没有问题，但一半的瑞典人反对它，认为家庭背景的差异会损害公平原则。所有布置家庭作业的老师，无论是英语还是瑞典语，都将家庭作业作为支持有可能落后于同龄人的孩子的一种手段，儿童练习日常技能的过程。英语教师与家庭作业相关的理由位于瑞典语中不可见的目标设定话语中。