Towards A Philosophy Of Critical Mathematics Education

In Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell gives a description of different forms of suppression. We learn about the telescreens placed everywhere, through which it is possible for Big-Brother to watch the inhabitants of Oceania. However, it is not only important to control the activities of the inhabitants, it is important as well to control their thoughts, and the Thought Police are on guard. This is a very direct form of monitoring and control, but Orwell also outlines a more imperceptible and calculated line of thought control. In the Appendix to Nineteen Eighty-Four Orwell explains some struc tures of 'Newspeak', which is going to become the official language of Oceania. Newspeak is being developed by the Ministry of Truth, and this language has to substitute 'Oldspeak' (similar to standard English). Newspeak should fit with the official politics of Oceania ruled by the Ingsoc party: "The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impos sible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought - that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc - should be literally unthink able, at least as far as thought is dependent on words.

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.

The book Critical Mathematics Education provides Ole Skovsmose’s recent contribution to the further development of critical mathematics education. It gives examples of learning environments, which invite students to engage in investigative processes. It discusses how mathematics can be used for identifying cases of social injustice, and it shows how mathematics itself can become investigated critically. Critical Mathematics Education addresses issues with respect to racism, oppression, erosion of democracy, sustainability, formatting power of mathematics, and banality of mathematical expertise. It explores relationships between mathematics, ethics, crises, and critique. Ole Skovsmose has published what I might call his magnum opus, a 280-page synthesis and extension of his work simply called Critical Mathematics Education. In it he brings together his deep philosophical understanding and theorisation of mathematics itself, mathematics in society from a critical perspective, and mathematics in the teaching, learning and formation of students. For the mathematics education community, especially those concerned with social justice, philosophy, critical pedagogy and the nature of mathematics this is likely to be the publishing event of the year. In this book he offers something lacking in the literature, a philosophy of applied mathematics, as well as much more. Paul Ernest, Emeritus Professor, University of Exeter, UK

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.

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 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.

"Foregrounds contributes to the development of theories of learning, in particular to theories of learning mathematics. It is relevant to students, student teachers, and researchers in the field of education as well as in mathematics education. Foregrounds contains six parts. Part I provides a summary of the notion of foreground as it has developed since the author introduced the idea in Towards a Philosophy of Critical Mathematics Education. In Part II, the reader meets some students who tell us about their neighbourhood, about drug dealing, violence, and about playing football. They tell us about their teachers, about mathematics, and about what they would like their teachers to do. They tell us about their hopes, expectations, and frustrations. Part III presents the notions of intentionality and life-world as developed by Brentano and Husserl. However, in Part IV the author provides a radical reinterpretation of these two notions. He describes “real-life intentionalities” and “real-life worlds” as profoundly structured by a range of social factors. Part V is composed as a meeting between, on the one hand, the students and their experiences as presented in Part II, and on the other hand these notions of “real-life intentionalities” and “real-life worlds”. Through this meeting the author develops further the notion of foreground. The concluding part (Part VI) brings more examples as illustrations. Ole Skovsmose has a special interest in critical mathematics education. He has investigated the landscape of investigation, students’ experience of meaning, project work, mathematics education and democracy, mathematics in action, and mathematics and power. He has published more than 20 books in Danish, English and Portuguese as well as a huge number of articles. Sense has published the following books by Ole Skovsmose: Travelling through Education, In Doubt, An Invitation to Critical Mathematics Education, and Opening the Cage: Critique and Politics of Mathematics Education, which is edited together with Brian Greer."