ABSTRACT
Cultural capital, which embodies the norms, ideologies, language, behavior, mores, and practices of a particular group, is transmitted to children as cultural knowledge. There are several theories that support the use of cultural pedagogy with students of color. According to W. G. Demmert and J. C. Towner, culturally based education is supported by three major theories: cultural compatibility theory, cultural-historical-activity theory, and cognitive theory. J. Lave contended that cognition is a multifaceted social phenomenon that is observed in daily practice and is encompassed by “mind, body, activity and culturally organized settings”. Cognitive theory supports the view that culture plays an important role in learning mathematics, and mathematics activity is expressed in unique forms in different situations. G. Saxe described a constructivist approach to study both culture and cognitive development. Several research studies that contribute to knowledge of student cognition in mathematics emerged from the literature on cognitively guided instruction.
