Cultural and Linguistic Heterogeneity as a Type of Learning in an Environment of Disadvantages

The focus of the chapter is on the issue of cultural and linguistic heterogeneity in mathematics classrooms and the development of suitable teaching materials that can be used in these classrooms and allow everyone in the group to feel welcome and involved. Heterogeneous environment here is considered as a special case of environments of disadvantages. The topic of cultural and linguistic heterogeneity in mathematics classrooms has become important in today’s world due to the growing cultural and linguistic heterogeneity not just in Europe but in the whole world. The interest in the topic combines the effort to help children from previously marginalized populations and the effort to help migrant children and new-comers. In the chapter the authors introduce three pillars that could help development of materials suitable for this type of classroom and illustrate how these pillars help to develop teaching materials. Excerpts from teaching unit developed within the project ERASMUS+ “Developing mathematics teaching units for migrant students (Math4Migrants)” are presented.