In reality, cultural beliefs about mathematics affect teaching practices and influence immigrant students' participation in the classroom and learning (Gorgorio and Planas, 2005). Immigrant students might differ not only in their background knowledge, but also in the strategies they use to solve problems. For example, mathematics teachers can choose among many different representations of the algorithm of division, and this choice is often culture-specific. Teachers who are not fully aware of these differences in approaches to mathematics problems or who "play down" cultural differences, arguing for general notions of ability and equity (Abreu, 2005), are ill-equipped to build on their students' knowledge and experience with mathematics.