Critical mathematics education brings together a series of concerns related to mathematics and its role in society, the practices of teaching and learning of mathematics in educational settings, and the practices of researching mathematics education. The work of Ole Skovsmose has provided a seminal contribution to the shaping of those concerns in the international community of mathematics educators and mathematics education researchers.
Mathematics is traditionally seen as the most neutral of disciplines, the furthest removed from the arguments and controversy of politics and social life. However, critical mathematics challenges these assumptions and actively attacks the idea that mathematics is pure, objective, and value?neutral. It argues that history, society, and politics have shaped mathematics—not only through its applications and uses but also through molding its concepts, methods, and even mathematical truth and proof, the very means of establishing truth. Critical mathematics education also attacks the neutrality of the teaching and learning of mathematics, showing how these are value?laden activities indissolubly linked to social and political life. Instead, it argues that the values of openness, dialogicality, criticality towards received opinion, empowerment of the learner, and social/political engagement and citizenship are necessary dimensions of the teaching and learning of mathematics, if it is to contribute towards democracy and social justice. This book draws together critical theoretic contributions on mathematics and mathematics education from leading researchers in the field. Recurring themes include: The natures of mathematics and critical mathematics education, issues of epistemology and ethics; Ideology, the hegemony of mathematics, ethnomathematics, and real?life education; Capitalism, globalization, politics, social class, habitus, citizenship and equity. The book demonstrates the links between these themes and the discipline of mathematics, and its critical teaching and learning. The outcome is a groundbreaking collection unified by a shared concern with critical perspectives of mathematics and education, and of the ways they impact on practice.
An Invitation to Critical Mathematics Education deals with a range of crucial topics. Among these are students’ foreground, landscapes of investigation, and mathematics in action. The book is intended for a broad audience: educators, students, teachers, policy makers, anybody interested in the further development of mathematics education. The book discusses concerns and preoccupation. This way it provides an invitation into critical mathematics education.
This volume showcases new insights, teaching ideas and new and unique ways of applying critical mathematics education, in areas as diverse as climate change, obesity, decolonisation and ethnomathematics.
Drawing on rich ethnographic data, Critical Mathematics Education: Can Democratic Mathematics Education Survive under Neoliberal Regime? responds to ongoing discussions on the standardization in curriculum and reconceptualizes Critical Mathematics Education (CME) by arguing that despite obstructive implications of market-driven changes in education, a practice of critical mathematics education to promote critical citizenship could be implemented through open-ended projects that resonate with an inquiry-based collaborative learning and dialogic pedagogy. In doing so, neoliberal hegemony in education can be countered. The book also identifies certain limitations of critical mathematical education and suggests pedagogic and curricular strategies for critical educators to cope with these obstacles.
The picture on the front of this book is an illustration for Totakahini: The tale of the parrot, by Rabindranath Tagore, in which he satirized education as a magnificent golden cage. Opening the cage addresses mathematics education as a complex socio-political phenomenon, exploring the vast terrain that spans critique and politics. Opening the cage includes contributions from educators writing critically about mathematics education in diverse contexts. They demonstrate that mathematics education is politics, they investigate borderland positions, they address the nexus of mathematics, education, and power, and they explore educational possibilities. Mathematics education is not a free enterprise. It is carried on behind bars created by economic, political, and social demands. This cage might not be as magnificent as that in Tagore’s fable. But it is strong. Opening the cage is a critical and political challenge, and we may be surprised to see what emerges.
This book documents and expands on the diverse social and political dimensions of mathematics education issues, concerns, perspectives, contexts, and approaches presented in Topic Study Group 34 of the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13). The book also argues for and promotes the mainstreaming of the sociopolitical dimensions of mathematics education through an ongoing critique and inquiry into content, policies, practices and theories. Accordingly, the main theme throughout the book is captured and illuminated by bringing voices from the margin to the mainstream. In this respect it is both aspirational and a reality, as evidenced by the increasing references to the sociopolitical dimensions in other areas of mathematics education—for example, in several of the plenary presentations at the ICME-13. The authors have reflected on their ideas with a view to orienting and enhancing research in the sociopolitical dimensions of mathematics education that is grounded in current education systems within their specific sociocultural contexts.
This survey provides a brief and selective overview of research in the philosophy of mathematics education. It asks what makes up the philosophy of mathematics education, what it means, what questions it asks and answers, and what is its overall importance and use? It provides overviews of critical mathematics education, and the most relevant modern movements in the philosophy of mathematics. A case study is provided of an emerging research tradition in one country. This is the Hermeneutic strand of research in the philosophy of mathematics education in Brazil. This illustrates one orientation towards research inquiry in the philosophy of mathematics education. It is part of a broader practice of ‘philosophical archaeology’: the uncovering of hidden assumptions and buried ideologies within the concepts and methods of research and practice in mathematics education. An extensive bibliography is also included.
This book offers an up-to-date overview of the research on philosophy of mathematics education, one of the most important and relevant areas of theory. The contributions analyse, question, challenge, and critique the claims of mathematics education practice, policy, theory and research, offering ways forward for new and better solutions. The book poses basic questions, including: What are our aims of teaching and learning mathematics? What is mathematics anyway? How is mathematics related to society in the 21st century? How do students learn mathematics? What have we learnt about mathematics teaching? Applied philosophy can help to answer these and other fundamental questions, and only through an in-depth analysis can the practice of the teaching and learning of mathematics be improved. The book addresses important themes, such as critical mathematics education, the traditional role of mathematics in schools during the current unprecedented political, social, and environmental crises, and the way in which the teaching and learning of mathematics can better serve social justice and make the world a better place for the future.
This open access book is based on selected presentations from Topic Study Group 21: Mathematical Applications and Modelling in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics at the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME 13), held in Hamburg, Germany on July 24–31, 2016. It contributes to the theory, research and teaching practice concerning this key topic by taking into account the importance of relations between mathematics and the real world. Further, the book addresses the “balancing act” between developing students’ modelling skills on the one hand, and using modelling to help them learn mathematics on the other, which arises from the integration of modelling into classrooms. The contributions, prepared by authors from 9 countries, reflect the spectrum of international debates on the topic, and the examples presented span schooling from years 1 to 12, teacher education, and teaching modelling at the tertiary level. In addition the book highlights professional learning and development for in-service teachers, particularly in systems where the introduction of modelling into curricula means reassessing how mathematics is taught. Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers and teacher educators in mathematics education, as well as pre-service teachers and school and university educators
