Abstracts - Earli

Which actors are nearest in their representations and which ones are more divergent? We usedquestionnaires or interviews with parents (144 natives and 68 immigrants) and professionals (29)from a school in a multicultural context and gathered descriptive data and freely associatedexpressions to explore their representations of schooling and pupils. After clustering and a factoranalysis of the results, we plan to advise on improvements to family-school communication.Empirically, we have two possibilities: either there are distinct representations held by thedifferent groups corresponding to cultural or other variables, or the representations held byindividual persons are not predominantly characterised by the different groups corresponding tocultural or other variables. These results will be available by the date of the conference. In eachcase we will propose some advice to help schools or institutions in a multicultural environment tounderstand their situations and have more information about their heterogeneous publics’expectations. The dissemination of the results of the study could also contribute to reducingdetrimental prejudices, particularly on underprivileged groups.Mathematics teachers’ attitudes and practices: Is there a difference according to students’socioeconomic environment?Anne Leblond, University of Montreal, CanadaJulie Bergeron , University of Montreal, CanadaRoch Chouinard , University of Montreal, CanadaAbstract The aim of the present study was to examine the hypothesis according to which teachers’attitudes and pedagogical practices differ depending on their students’ socioeconomic status.Sixty-three 9th grade mathematics teachers answered a questionnaire concerning their attitudesabout their students, their profession and their pedagogical practices. Some teachers were workingin low socioeconomic environments (n = 36) and others were working in high socioeconomicenvironments (n = 27). Data were collected with a self-reported questionnaire including severalscales: professional satisfaction, opinions on school success, pedagogical and assessmentpractices. Data were analysed with multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) in which theattitudes and pedagogical practices were the dependent variables and the socioeconomic status(SES) of the school environment was the independent factor. Results indicated that, in general,teachers’ attitudes and practices did not vary much according to their school SES. However, someattitudes and practices were distinct between the two groups. Actually, teachers working in lowSES environments mentioned that they compare their students on a performance basis more thanteachers in high SES environments. Moreover, they use more exam-type evaluations in theirpedagogical practices and perceive more socio-economic constraints in their students’environment than their colleagues from more privileged environments. Thus, teachers’ formationprograms should help them to better differentiate their pedagogical strategies according to theirschool SES.– 657 –