ABSTRACT
This chapter initiates a discussion on how beliefs are associated with specific mathematical practices, that are how they are linked with mathematical actions, and how they determine children's and teachers' attitudes to mathematics. It reports some empirical data from a research project, which was based on a theoretical approach intergrating mathematical cognition and beliefs, and in a methodological approach which uses qualitative case studies. Several studies by, Carraher and Schliemann undertaken in the north east of Brazil with children who belong to working-class backgrounds and who usually engaged in different mathematical practices showed that they use mathematics in situated ways. The chapter provides some empirical evidence which showed that the split between a school mathematics culture and an out-of-school mathematics culture is manifested both in children's mathematics and in their beliefs about the mathematics. Formal schooling on the island is subordinated to the national system of education, which in Portugal is strongly centralised.
