Breaking Images: Iconoclastic Analyses of Mathematics and its Education - cover image

Book Series

Copyright

Brian Greer; David Kollosche; Ole Skovsmose. Copyright of individual chapters are maintained by the chapter author(s).

Published On

2024-12-11

ISBN

Paperback978-1-80511-321-8
Hardback978-1-80511-322-5
PDF978-1-80511-323-2
HTML978-1-80511-325-6
EPUB978-1-80511-324-9

Language

  • English

Print Length

600 pages (vi+594)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 42 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.65" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 45 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.77" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback1124g (39.65oz)
Hardback1312g (46.28oz)

Media

Illustrations11
Tables4

OCLC Number

1478298300

LCCN

2023513491

THEMA

  • PB
  • PBB
  • YPMF

BISAC

  • EDU029010
  • MAT015000
  • MAT000000

LCC

  • QA10.7

Keywords

  • Mathematics education
  • School mathematics
  • Human agency
  • Philosophy of mathematics
  • Historical dimensions
  • Cultural dimensions
  • politics and mathematics

Breaking Images

Iconoclastic Analyses of Mathematics and its Education

Mathematics is an activity—something we do—not just something inert that we study. This rich collection begins from that premise to explore the various social influences, institutional forces and lived realities that shape and mould the study and practice of mathematics, and are moulded by it in turn.

These twenty-one essays explore questions of mathematics as a topic of philosophy, but also the nature and purpose of mathematics education and the role of mathematics in moulding citizens. It challenges the biases and prejudices inherent within uninformed histories of mathematics, including problems of white supremacy, the denial of cultural difference and the global homogenization of teaching methods. In particular, the book contrasts the effectiveness of mathematics and science in modelling physical phenomena and solving technical problems with its ineffectiveness in modelling social phenomena and solving human problems, and urges us to consider how mathematics might better meet the urgent crises of our age.

The book addresses anybody who is interested in reflecting on the role of mathematics in society from different perspectives. It allows mathematicians to ponder about the cultural connections of mathematics and provides new perspectives for philosophical, sociological and cultural studies of mathematics. Because of the book’s emphasis on education in mathematics, it is especially interesting for mathematics teachers and teacher educators to challenge their understanding of the subject.

Contents

1. Beginning

(pp. 1–22)
  • Brian Greer
  • Ole Skovsmose
  • David Kollosche

2. Why and how people develop mathematics

(pp. 25–60)
  • Brian Greer

3. Hardy’s deep sigh

(pp. 61–78)
  • Ole Skovsmose

4. Formalism, structuralism, and the doctrine of neutrality

(pp. 79–104)
  • Ole Skovsmose

5. Dehumanisation through mathematics

(pp. 105–144)
  • David Kollosche

6. A short commentary on Kollosche’s ‘Dehumanisation through mathematics’

(pp. 145–148)
  • Roy Wagner

7. Intuition revived

(pp. 149–174)
  • Ole Skovsmose

8. Human mathematics

(pp. 175–194)
  • Ole Ravn

9. The case of Ramanujan: Investigating social and sociomathematical norms outside the mathematics classroom

(pp. 195–212)
  • Felix Lensing

10. A performative and relational ethnomathematics

(pp. 213–234)
  • Aldo Parra

11. A critical conception of mathematics

(pp. 235–268)
  • Ole Skovsmose

12. Art and anti-mathematics

(pp. 269–290)
  • Houman Harouni

13. How children, under instruction, develop mathematical understanding

(pp. 293–334)
  • Brian Greer

14. Rethinking mathematics education

(pp. 335–372)
  • Alan H. Schoenfeld

15. Networks, controversies, and the political in mathematics education research

(pp. 373–404)
  • Lisa Björklund Boistrup
  • Paola Valero

16. Globalisation of mathematics education and the world’s first monoculture: Assessment spread’s association with consumerism and human capital

(pp. 405–434)
  • Mark Wolfmeyer

17. Bringing ethnomathematical perspectives into classrooms

(pp. 435–460)
  • Swapna Mukhopadhyay
  • Brian Greer

18. Mathematics education as a racialized field

(pp. 461–484)
  • Christopher C. Jett
  • Julius Davis

19. Gender, mathematics, and mathematics education

(pp. 485–538)
  • David Kollosche
  • Daniela Steflitsch
  • Kora Deweis-Weidlinger

20. Societal perceptions of mathematics and mathematics education

(pp. 539–568)
  • Melissa Andrade-Molina
  • Alex Montecino Muñoz

21. Beginning again

(pp. 569–574)
  • Brian Greer
  • David Kollosche
  • Ole Skovsmose

Contributors

Brian Greer

(editor)
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5230-1904

Brian Greer began his research on mathematical cognition, before shifting his interest to school mathematics. That evolved to reflect a characterization of mathematics as a human activity embedded in historical, cultural, social and political – in short, human – contexts.

David Kollosche

(editor)
Full Professor for Mathematics Education Research at University of Klagenfurt
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1055-2418

David Kollosche is a full professor for mathematics education research at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria. He teaches mathematics, history of mathematics, philosophy of mathematics, and mathematics education to prospective secondary school teachers. His research focusses on theoretical foundations of mathematics education, the epistemology of mathematics, the sociology of mathematics education, and students’ perspectives on mathematics education.

Ole Skovsmose

(editor)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1528-796X

Ole Skovsmose’s research has addressed landscapes of investigation, dialogue, students’ foreground, inclusive mathematics education, pedagogical imagination, mathematics in action, philosophy of mathematics education, and philosophy of mathematics. He has been professor at Aalborg University, Denmark, but is now associated to State University of São Paulo, Brazil. In 2024, he was awarded the Hans Freudenthal medal.