Meaningful contexts or dead mock reality: Which form will the everyday take?

This paper describes the experiences of two teachers, Bulelwa and Kevin, who attempt to take on board the notion of incorporating the everyday into the mathematics, as the new South African Curriculum requires. Both of them, though in different ways, attempt to accommodate the two discourses, namely mathematics and the everyday. Because of their own different experiences and the different values they place on the everyday in mathematics, they handle the incorporation of the everyday quite differently. The paper argues that the practical experiences of these teachers provide insight into some of the practical challenges teachers have to negotiate in order to provide legitimacy for the everyday in mathematics.