These practices, which Buchmann ( Citation1987, p. In this latter respect, Hofstede ( Citation1986) showed how different cultural groups create widely differing practices with respect to the management of teaching, learning, and the respective actors’ roles and responsibilities. Moreover, because culture embodies shared ideas about what is good, right, and desirable (Schwartz, Citation1999), its maintenance is a key function of education (Triandis & Suh, Citation2002), with curricula typically reflecting societal perspective on the ideal citizen (Cummings, Citation2003). It is generally accepted that the processes of education are deep-rooted in the cultures, albeit invisibly (Williams, Citation1958), in which they are found. English teachers’ homework-related justifications were located in a discourse of target setting that was invisible in the Swedish. All teachers who set homework, whether English or Swedish, spoke of homework as a means of supporting children at risk of falling behind their peers, a process by which children practice routine skills. While homework was unproblematic for all English teachers, half the Swedish cohort spoke against it, arguing that variation in home background would compromise principles of equity. These concerned the existence of homework, the purpose of homework and the role of parents in homework’s completion. Analyses yielded three broad but cross-culturally common themes reflecting culturally situated notions of common sense. In order to ensure cultural integrity, data were analysed independently by two colleagues in each context. This paper presents an exploratory study of English and Swedish teachers’ perspectives on the role of homework in year-one children’s learning of number.

We do the homework