Summary This article pointed to shortcomings in the quality of students’ learning in mathematics as a problem, as evidenced by the low results of higher education examinations in the province of Santiago de Cuba. The investigation did not find any history of ethnographic studies in the educational context of santiaguan education. Consequently, the aim is to make an ethnographic approach to the way in which mathematics teachers conceive the design of their pedagogical management in order to generate long-lasting knowledge among students. Qualitative methodology was used and the basic method for obtaining information was fieldwork in a population of 229 teaching staff, of which 83 were shown. This investigation ran from September 2016 to October 2017. The use of ethnographic techniques complemented the methodology to achieve as the main result a cultural-pedagogical/operational matrix for educational action in the teaching of mathematics. It also revealed theoretical limitations in understanding the scope of teacher pedagogical management in the model operating in Santiago de Cuba. The cultural-pedagogical operational matrix is a result that created methodological conditions for the transfer of good practice in mathematical learning and opens a space for reflection on how to manage learning.