IN(EX)CLUSION IN MATHEMATICS AND THE FABRICATION OF THE MODERN CITIZEN

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Published: Dec 1, 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/enedim.15204
Keywords:
In(ex)clusion power in mathematics education discourse poststructuralism
Paola Valero
Aalborg University
Abstract

It is a self-evident truth nowadays to say that mathematics education is a pillar for citizenship. It is also a very evident true that mathematics education should be for all. But it is also a truth that mathematics education is certainly not for all. The positioning of school mathematics as a privileged area of the school curriculum is important to understand how, in contemporary societies, the practices of mathematics education are inevitable mechanisms of both inclusion and exclusion. But… inclusion and exclusion of whom? in/from what? My intention in this paper is to delineate an emergent trend in researching the politics of mathematics education as historical and cultural practices within schooling, drawing on the work of Michel Foucault. The shift from a focus on a cultural understanding of mathematical thinking, towards the understanding of school mathematics as an area of the curriculum in modern schooling in the 20th century allows tracing the constitution of the systems of reason that govern educational practices in mathematics. Such tracing brings different perspectives for the understanding of the predicaments of failure and success in school mathematics. I will bring material from my current research to illustrate how such types of analysis unfolds the conditions on which mathematics education operates in(ex)clusion.

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Author Biography
Paola Valero, Aalborg University
Professor
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