This paper concerns the relationship between learning English as an additional language (EAL) and school mathematics. In bilingual education, Cummins has proposed a distinction between coercive and collaborative power-relations as an important consideration in the education of such students, advocating collaboration as a means to empower such students, and so enable more effective learning. In this paper, I explore these ideas through a discursive examination of two texts: extracts from the National Numeracy Strategy (NNS) concerning EAL; and extracts from a transcript of two EAL students working on a mathematics classroom task. My analysis highlights the multilayered nature of collaborative and coercive power relations within mathematics classrooms.