Weighing up the influence of context on judgements of mathematical literacy

Mathematical literacy, as a set of ideas around applications of mathematics to real world contexts, has recently featured in curricula discussions about the aims for mathematics education. This paper explores the effect that differences in the way that a mathematical activity is contextualised have on students' mathematical arguments and therefore on their levels of mathematical literacy. Seventy-two students' responses to three similar measurement tasks are described according to Kaiser and Willander's (2005) levels of mathematical literacy. The arguments used for each level of mathematical literacy are then investigated for the presence of macro and micro linguistic features. The context of the task affects what students perceive to be the most relevant level of mathematical literacy to use and this is reflected in the arguments that they give.