Critical ME

An Invitation to Critical
Mathematics Education
An Invitation to Critical
Mathematics Education
Ole Skovsmose
Aalborg University, Denmark
SENSE PUBLISHERS
ROTTERDAM/BOSTON/TAIPEI
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-94-6091-440-9 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-94-6091-441-6 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-94-6091-442-3 (e-book)
Published by: Sense Publishers,

P.O. Box 21858,
3001 AW Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
https://www.sensepublishers.com
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved 2011 Sense Publishers
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and
executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Preoccupations 1
Chapter 1: Mathematics education is undetermined 5

1.1 Mathematics education is disempowering 7
1.2 Mathematics education is empowering 10
1.3 Being undetermined 14
Chapter 2: Diversity of situations 17

2.1 A bias in mathematics education research? 18
2.2 Contrast through globalisation and ghettoising 19
Chapter 3: Students foregrounds 21

3.1 Foreground 21
3.2 Intentionality and learning 24
3.3 Meaning in mathematics education 27
Chapter 4: Landscapes of investigation 31

4.1 Entering a landscape of investigation 32
4.2 Milieus of learning 39
4.3 Leafing through a newspaper 42
4.4 Moving between different learning milieus 45
4.5 Zones of risks and possibilities 47
Intermezzo: The modern conception of mathematics 49

Mathematics and natural science 49
Mathematics and technology 52
Mathematics and purity 53
Modern mathematics education 56
Chapter 5: A critical conception of mathematics 59

5.1 Mathematics, discourse, and power 60
5.2 Dimensions of mathematics in action 62
5.3 Wonders, horrors, and reflections 68
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 6: Reflection 71
6.1 Reflections on mathematics 72
6.2 Reflections with mathematics 76
6.3 Reflections through mathematical inquiries 77
Chapter 7: Mathemacy in a globalised and ghettoised world 81

7.1 Mathematics education world-wide 82
7.2 Practices of marginalised 84
7.3 Practices of consumption 87
7.4 Practices of operation 88
7.5 Practices of construction 89
Chapter 8: Uncertainty 93
References 99
Name Index 109
Subject Index 111
vi
Acknowledgements
Let me acknowledge immediately that this book did not turn out as
I expected. I wanted to make an uncomplicated presentation of critical
mathematics education and to draw only on material and examples with
which I was already familiar and which I had written about. Sure, I did
use such material and examples, but this did not ensure the straight-
forwardness and clarity I had hoped for. Maybe I also need to acknow-
ledge that it is not possible, a least not possible for me, to provide a
short and clear presentation of critical mathematics education.
I certainly want to acknowledge that I have received much help
in writing this book. I want to give thanks for the very many suggestions
and improvements given me by Peter Gates, Aldo Parra and Miriam
Godoy Penteado, my wife. I also want to thank Kristina Brun Madsen
for her careful language revision and for organising the manuscript
ready for print.
Rio Claro, January 2011
Ole Skovsmose
vii
Introduction
Preoccupations
In many cases it does not make sense to distinguish between a pheno-
menon and the discourse about the phenomenon. The discourse consti-
tutes the phenomenon and comes to make part of it. Different
languages not only provide different world views but also different
worlds. Our life-worlds are discursively constructed.
However, there might be limitations to an extreme discourse
relativism, which not only blurs the distinction between language and
reality, but claims this very distinction to be meaningless. To me the
interesting thing is not to repeat an extreme relativism as if it was a
universal truth, but to address it critically. Does it make sense, in some
situations, to talk about reality and discourse about reality as inter-
acting, although this interaction does not annihilate the very distinction?
Or do we in fact end up with one category: a discourse-reality unity?
I find that there are shortcomings to any universal discourse
relativism. To make a simple observation: According to statistics,
different groups of people have different opportunities in life, including
life expectancy. Such an observation is not easily changed through
change of discourse. We cannot eliminate poverty and the implications
of poverty through such a change. We have to make real changes.
There is, however, something which is highly dependent on dis-
courses, and that is our preoccupations. Through a discourse we can
express specific preoccupations; and through a change of discourse
we may come to change the preoccupations too. For example, the way
one looks at poverty depends upon the discourse one uses to talk of
it. One might, for instance, claim that the cause of poverty is lack of
education, which in turn is due to lack of willingness to be educated.
Accordingly one might develop a discourse within which poverty comes
to be seen as self-inflicted. One might also develop a discourse accor-
ding to which poverty is a consequence of exploitation exercised by a
neoliberal economic system. However, such a change of discourse is no
simple thing, as discourses are deeply ingrained in traditions, priorities,
1
INTRODUCTION
culture, ideologies and political systems. Changing a discourse means

changing life-worlds, if not worlds.
A variety of discourses are applied when one engages in talk about
education. The teachers staffroom discourse concerns, for instance, the
handling of difficult students. The administrative discourse addresses
the organisation of staff and school. Political discourses may see schools
as part of societys production schemes and talk about education in
input-output figures. A variety of theoretical discourses embrace different
interpretations of learning, teaching, meaning, evaluation, etc. Radical
discourse relativism would say that education and discourses about
education melt together and that there is no educational reality as
such. I prefer, however, to consider education and discourses about
education as a blurred distinction, as an interacting relationship, but
still as a relationship. I do not find that education can be subjected to
absolute discourse relativism.
Certainly there are very many different ways of expressing our
preoccupations, and I will present some concepts through which I try to
express some preoccupations with respect to mathematics education.
It is through the formulation of these preoccupations that I want to elucidate critical
mathematics education.1
I do not see critical mathematics education as a special branch of
mathematics education, nor do I relate it to certain classroom peda-
gogy or particular curriculum content. Instead I see it as an expression of
some preoccupations or concerns with respect to mathematics education.
I will present a few terms by means of which one may be able to
express some of these. To think of this fragile conceptual network as a
discourse of critical mathematics education is a massive exaggeration.
However, even though the network might be rudimentary and fragile,
the preoccupations might be extensive and profound.
I see mathematics education as being undetermined. It is without
essence. It can be acted out in many different ways and come to serve a
grand variety of social, political, and economic functions and interests.
1 A rich exploration of issues of critical mathematics education is found in

Alr, Ravn, and Valero (Eds.) (2010); Appelbaum with Allan (2008); Ernest,
Greer and Sriraman (Eds.) (2009); Greer, Mukhopadhyay, Powell, and Nelson-
Barber (Eds.) (2009); Mora (Ed.) (2005); and Sriraman (Ed.) (2008). See
Skovsmose (in print) for a discussion of critical mathematics education in terms
of concern.
2
PREOCCUPATIONS
I will use the notion of situation in order to emphasise the

importance of discussing processes of teaching and learning with respect
to social, political, cultural, and economic contexts. In our globalised and
ghettoised world, there is a huge diversity of sites for teaching and
learning mathematics, and this diversity has to be addressed.
Through the notion of students foreground I want to address how
students might experience possibilities. This further relates to notions
like intentionality and meaning. How students construct meaning
depends on how they may connect their learning activities to their
foreground and to their situation in general.
Through landscapes of investigation I want to explore educational
possibilities, in particular those that reach beyond the school mathe-
matics tradition. Such an exploration brings us to discuss notions like
inquiry, comfort zone, and risk zone, which in turn represents a zone
of possibilities.
A critical conception of mathematics will be explored through mathe-
matics in action and the variety of forms in which mathematics is
brought into effect. This could be in technological, economic and
business settings; it could be in all kinds of trade and everyday settings.
Our life-world is deeply structured through mathematics in action.
All form of actions need reflection, which also applies to mathe-
matics in action. Through this observation, the very notion of reflection
gets amplified, which in turn brings us to consider the notions of
mathemacy and dialogue.
Mathemacy can be interpreted in different ways, and I interpret it
as also referring to social response-ability. This makes it possible to
formulate some of the aspirations of critical mathematics education,
including what it could mean to establish a mathematics education for
critical citizenship.
It should never be forgotten that as soon as one wants to operate
with grand notions like social responsibility, one is on thin ice. The
concerns of critical mathematics education cannot be formulated with
reference to any well-defined framework of ideas and priorities. I see,
instead, any critical activity as connected to a profound uncertainty. This
has to be recognised as part of the formulations of preoccupations of
critical mathematics education.
What preoccupations, then, can be formulated though this fragile
conceptual network established by: undetermined, situation, students
3
INTRODUCTION
foreground, landscapes of investigation, critical conception of mathematics, reflection,

and mathemacy? I do not have any well-defined list mind, but throughout
the rest of this book I will try to express some preoccupations, and let
them be interwoven with uncertainties.
4
Chapter 1
Mathematics education
is undetermined
In order to understand what might be meant by mathematics education
is undetermined, let me start by saying a few words about mathe-
matics, mathematics education and undetermined.2
I consider mathematics an open concept, which, depending on
the discourse one uses, might acquire many different possible meanings.
In Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein talks about the variety
of language games, and mathematics might well be operating as a
variety of such games. While mathematics as a research field includes a
vast domain of unsolved issues and conceptions in development, mathe-
matics as a school subject refers to a well-defined body of knowledge
parcelled out in bits and pieces to be taught and learned according to
pre-formed criteria. Mathematics could, however, also refer to domains
of knowledge and understanding that are not institutionalised through
research or curriculum structures. Thus for example, we can locate
mathematics in many work practices. Mathematics is part of technology
and design; it is part of procedures for decision making; it is present in
tables, diagrams, graphs. We can experience a lot of mathematics by
just leafing through any daily newspaper.
According to the language-game metaphor, this variety of mathe-
matics need not just be different expressions of the same underlying
genuine mathematics; rather, alternatively very different concepts of
mathematics could be in use. We might only be dealing with the same
word or phrase whose meaning and operationalisation could be different.
As a consequence, perhaps we had better give up the assumption that
2 A preliminary version of this chapter has been presented at the 32nd Encontro
da Associao de Ps-Graduacao e Pesquisa em Educao (ANPED), Caxambu,
Minas Gerais, Brazil, 47 October, 2009.
5
CHAPTER 1
it is possible to provide a neat and universal defining clarification

of mathematics. Well-intended definitions, as for instance suggested by
logicism (describing mathematics as a set of tautologies) or by formalism
(describing mathematics as a formal game governed by explicitly stated
rules), might just be shrouding the possibility that there are no unifying
characteristics of mathematics. I shall try to keep these observations in
mind when I talk about mathematics. I do accept this might well bring
me to a difficult position, since I have already used the word mathe-
matics a fair number of times and will continue to use it. However,
I will continue to let it be so.
Similarly, mathematics education refers to a variety of activities. We
could think of both teaching and learning and the very many different
contexts in which they both occur. Mathematics education takes place
in schools, where the teaching is mainly taken care of by the teacher,
and the learning mainly by the students. Yet mathematics education
could also refer to activities outside of the school. Mathematics could
be taught and learnt in work places and in many daily activities; it
could be taught and learnt even when the whole setting has little to do
with mathematics, say, when someone is shopping, checking accounts,
discussing the news, etc. I will keep all such examples of mathematics
education in mind.
And finally, addressing the meaning of undetermined just what
could that mean? A social process could be undetermined in the sense
that it could result in very different things. The situation is open, and so
is its outcome. The use of undetermined could remind us of a common
use of the word critical in medicine. One could find the situation of a
patient to be critical. This means that his or her situation is not stable
and could dramatically change for the worse at any moment; it could
turn both ways and it certainly makes a dramatic difference which
way it turns. In general, I consider something to be undetermined if it
could develop in very different ways, depending on factors which might
not be possible to comprehend. The development could be simply
out of control and proceed randomly.
This gives the following reading of the headline of this chapter
mathematics education is being undetermined: mathematics education
understood in a broad sense can be acted out in very many different
ways, and this could really make a difference, for the good or for
the bad.
6
MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IS UNDETERMINED
1.1 Mathematics education is disempowering

In the literature we can find many examples of mathematics education
which looks ghastly, often personalised by a mathematics teacher
who for example dominates the students and with devastatingly cold
sarcasm, castigates those who do not grasp the elegance of a mathe-
matical proof.
Mathematics education may operate with socio-political naivety
and blindness. The film Life is Beautiful, directed by Roberto Benigni,
includes a scene which provides a grotesque illustration of this. The first,
more humorous, part of the film takes place in a provincial Italian city
before the Second World War, where the fascination with Nazi Germany
was part of the fascistic outlook. In a short scene, we listen to an Italian
educator who has visited Germany and was impressed by what she saw.
There, 7 year old German children were able solve a problem such as
the following:
A lunatic costs the state 4 Marks per day. A cripple, 4.5 Marks
per day. An epileptic, 3.5 Marks per day. The average is 4 Marks
per day, and the number of patients is 300,000. How much
would we save if these individuals were eliminated?
The Italian educator could not believe that seven year olds had to
solve a problem like this. These are after all difficult calculations! The
children would need at least some notion of algebra. A man listening
to the educators explanation emphasises that it is just a multiplication
(apparently assuming an equal number of lunatics, cripples and epilep-
tics): 300,000 times 4. Killing them all we will save 1.200.000 Marks a
day. It is easy, right? The educator agrees, but her point is that in
Germany, 7 year old children can do it, while such a problem is far
beyond the capacity of Italian children that age.
Exercises play a crucial role within the school mathematics tradition.
Thus, during their time in school, most children will be solving more
that 10.000 exercises. However, not much mathematical creativity is
cultivated through working on such exercises. Could it be that some
deep socio-economic irrationality is maintained as part of mathematics
education? Could it be that this part of the educational system the
world over sustains a dysfunction? Or could it be that this is not
dysfunction, but rather a kind of functionality which is actually much
7
CHAPTER 1
appreciated in todays labour market, but which we as mathematics

educators are not really prepared to acknowledge? Let us take a more
careful look at a possible exercise:
A shop is offering apples for 0.12 Euro apiece, and for 2.8
Euros for bags containing 3 kilos. There are 11 apples to each
kilo. Calculate how much Peter will save if he buys 15 kilos of
apples in bags of 3 kilos instead of buying them individually.
As most other exercises from the school mathematics tradition, this

exercise has just been invented at a desk. There is no need to do any
empirical investigation in order to come up with similar exercises
within this tradition. Furthermore, we can observe that concerning
this exercise, all the information given can be considered to be exact.
Thus, when doing the calculation, one can be sure there are 11 apples,
and exactly 11 apples, to each kilo, just as we can be sure that the
price is exactly 0.12 Euro for one apple. That we are dealing with two
different kinds of truths is of no significance, and need not be
addressed in any way as part of formulating the solution.
Any information provided in the text of an exercise can be
considered exact and sufficient. And furthermore, the information
provided in the exercise is both sufficient and necessary for solving
the problem. Based on the given information, it is possible (and legiti-
mate within mathematics classrooms) to calculate the one and only
correct answer. It is not necessary for the students to try to get more
information. Certainly there is no need for them to leave the classroom
in order to search for supplementary information about prices or to
check if it makes sense to assume that 11 apples weigh one kilo. This
could remind us of the principal step in industrialisation: controlling
the workforce. A simple device of the industrial revolution was to
bring the workers all together in factories, and there to provide them
with all the necessary tools in one place and all possible reasons for
the workers to leave the factory were eliminated. A similar logic of
control also makes up part of the school mathematics tradition. All
necessary information is provided and the students can solve the
exercise while remaining seated at their desks. An exercise establishes
a micro-world, where all measures are exact, and where the information
given is both necessary and sufficient in order to calculate the one and
only correct answer.
8
Such exercises have to be solved correctly and the correctness of

the answer depends on many things. If a student may have made a
wrong calculation, it could be that he or she has chosen a wrong
algorithm. A student might have copied the exercise wrongly from the
textbook and, for instance, written 0.22 instead of 0.12 and such a
mistake will result in a wrong answer. One can also have solved the
wrong exercise: Oh, Johnny, this exercise is not for today. Right now
you have to do the exercises on page 34.
Michel Foucault has talked about a regime of truths. According
to him every society endorses some categories, which come to designate
what counts as truth. The establishment of regimes of truth is a
historical process, as all categorical frameworks are part of an epoch. All
discourses are culture- and context-bound, and thus come to determine
what to count as true: Each society has its regime of truth, its general
politics of truth that is, the types of discourse it accepts and makes
function as truth; the mechanisms and instances that enable one to dis-
tinguish true and false statements; the means by which each is sanctioned;
the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition of
truth; the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as
true. (Foucault, 2000: 131) Similarly, the school mathematics tradition
also exercises its regime of truths.
From the perspective of understanding mathematics many regula-
tions and corrections, so characteristic for the school mathematics
tradition, appear irrational. However, when students have been directed
through the 10.000 exercises, they might have learnt something which
need not have much to do with any mathematical understanding.
Their learning might crystallise into a prescription readiness.3 Just take a
look at the formulations of exercises: Reduce the expression! Solve
the equation!, Find x, when! Calculate how much Peter will
save!
These exercises seem to take the form of a long sequence of
instructions. Could it be that the school mathematics tradition cultivates
a prescription readiness, which prepares the students for participating
in work processes where a careful following of step by step instructions
without any question is essential? Could it be that such a prescription-
readiness is serviceable for very many job functions in our society and
3 For a discussion of prescription readiness, see Skovsmose (2008a). See
also Christensen, Stentoft and Valero, P. (2007).
9
CHAPTER 1
that the school mathematics tradition serves society perfectly well in

exercising this readiness? Could it be that a prescription-readiness,
including submission to a regime of truths, cultivates a socio-political
naivety and blindness that is appreciated at todays labour market? Could
it be that a prescription-readiness fits perfectly well the priorities of a
neo-liberal market, where hectic and unquestioned production serves
the economic demands?
1.2 Mathematics education is empowering

The term empowerment can be interpreted in different ways with
reference to mathematics: we can consider a classic notion of intellectual
empowerment; we can talk about empowerment in pragmatic (and
individual) terms; and we can think of empowerment in socio-political
terms. I am sure that there are many other interpretations of empower-
ment with reference to mathematics, but for the moment I restrict
myself to considering just these three.
The classic idea of intellectual empowerment through mathematics
education draws from a long tradition in philosophy and epistemology.
It has been pointed out that while many sorts of assumed knowledge
and ways of thinking have deceived the human mind, mathematics has
not. Instead mathematics represents a unique example of genuine know-
ledge. Since the advent of ancient Greek philosophy, the notions of
knowledge and certainty have been related. Thus, Plato claimed that
knowledge with certainty was within human reach. In fact the most
splendid example was mathematics. According to Plato, intellectual
capacity enabled human beings to discover properties of the world of
ideas. Later, through the scientific revolution, the powers of mathe-
matics reached a new format. It became recognised that the laws of
nature had a mathematical format. Thus, through mathematics, and
only through mathematics, it became possible to grasp basic features
of Gods creation. Both lines of argumentation concerning certainty
and insight into nature established mathematics as a sublime form of
intellectual empowerment.
The pragmatic (and individual) interpretation of empowerment
developed along a different line of argumentation. It emphasises the
power that mathematics brings to bear through its applications, and
10
a range of such applications emerged along with the industrial revolu-

tion. There are many examples to highlight: spectacular applications
in technology and applications that makes part of everyday routines.
Furthermore, mathematics education can empower people by providing
them with qualifications that are important for participating in a variety
of practices. In particular, mathematics education could ensure many
people obtain a good position in the labour market, which means
(personal) empowerment.
A socio-political interpretation of empowerment brings the
discussion in a different direction. Here I can refer to very may
different formulations of mathematics education for social justice. 4
The claim is that through mathematics education it is possible to develop
an insight that has a broad social and political significance. This has been
expressed through different conceptual frameworks drawing from more
general formulations of critical education. Thus Paulo Freire has talked
about an education that brings about a concientizao; Theodor Adorno
has talked about an education for Mndigkeit; others have talked about
emancipation as an educational notion; others still have talked about
an education that could bring about critical citizenship.5 It should also
be noted that many of these formulations belong to a first phase of
critical education. There is a real need for renewed consideration.
In order to illustrate an attempt to provide a socio-political
interpretation of empowerment with reference to mathematics educa-
tion, let me refer to the project Energy which I have described else-
where.6 The students that participated in the project were 1415 years
old, and the teacher Henning Bdtkjer conducted the project. The
overall empowering idea was that the project was to bring about an
insight that made the students able to understand and address some
socio-economic issues of general relevance, and which at the same
time could be explored more specifically through mathematics.
The project addresses input-output models for energy. The
students were invited to have breakfast at the school where they care-
fully measured everything they drank and ate, and calculated how high
an energy input the breakfast represented. The calculations were based
4 See, for instance, Gates (2006).

5 See, for instance Freire (1972), and Adorno (1971).
6 For a more detailed description for the project, see Skovsmose (1994).
11
CHAPTER 1
on all the information available about the energy content, measured in

kJ, that any kind of food contains. The energy output was obtained
through the activity of cycling. It was calculated how much energy
each student used on a particular bicycle trip. The calculation was based
on simplified formulas from sports research. The formulas expressed
the use of energy as a function of different parameters like speed,
length of the trip, type of bike, and the frontal area of the cyclist. It
was possible to measure the length of the trip, which was the same for
all students, and the speed, which was individual. The frontal area of
each of the cyclists was a parameter more difficult to handle. However, a
method was found and the students could complete their calculations
of the consummation of energy. Bringing the two calculations together
they could get a first experience of what input-output calculations
with respect to energy could mean.
After this introduction, the project turned to a different yet major
issue, namely input-output figures for farming, in particular with respect
to food production. The calculations were carried out with reference
to a particular farm, not far from the school. The first step in the input
calculation was to estimate how much energy, in terms of petrol, was
used in order to cultivate a particular field in the space of a year. The
field had to be gone over several times with different tools: the plough,
the harvest, the sprayer, etc. The students took notes of all the proce-
dures and measured the breadth of the different tools. They measured
the size of the particular field to which all the calculations were
related, and they calculated how many kilometres a year the farmer
had to drive the tractor in preparation of the field. The students were
notified of the tractors use of petrol per kilometre, and on this basis
one part of the energy-input was estimated. The field was used for the
growth of barley, and the energy content in the seeds used for sowing
was also estimated.
The next step was to estimate the energy output from the field.
At this time, students found out how much barley could be produced
on the particular field, and they looked up statistics on how much
energy was contained in the produced amount of barley. From these
calculations the first input-output factor was estimated. According to
the students calculations, the harvested barley contained about 6 times
the energy that had gone into the field. There seemed to be a good
energy growth in such and endeavour. Yet, as energy does not come
12
from nothing, there must be some important supplier, and, sure enough,
the sun is the most reliable one. The students calculation could be
compared to the official statistics in Denmark revealing that the actual
energy growth factor is only about 3. Thus there are many more
parameters to consider, for instance all the transports that are necessary
in order to complete the field work. At any rate, the students got a
fairly good idea about one example of input-output calculations with
respect to farming.
The next step in the input-output calculations was to investigate
what happens in meat production. Barley can be used for feeding pigs,
as was the case on the farm in question. The feeding process could be
observed almost directly, as an automatic feeding machinery was geared
in such a way that barley was transferred from the pile of barley in the
barn in proper measures and at the proper times to each of the pigs
feeding troughs. The transfer was made in accordance with an algorithm
that considered the number of pigs and their size. This transfer also
represented a transformation of food from barley to meat, and one
could then look at this transformation in terms on input-output figures.
The students calculated the energy contained in the barley that the
pigs were eating and compared it to the energy contained in the meat
from the pigs when slaughtered. The students collected the information
about how much barley a pig would eat, depending on their weight,
and what their weight was when sent to the bacon factory. The ratio
between the weight of a pig and the amount of meat it produces when
slaughtered was also clarified, together with the energy content of meat.
On this basis the students estimated a new input-output figure, namely
0.2. From an energy point of view, meat production has a really bad
growth economy. The statistics provided by agricultural research
show that also in this case the students results were similar to the
official results with respect to Danish farming.
During the project the students became familiar with input-
output calculations with respect to energy. The whole project was
related to a particular farm, but the issue that was addressed was of a
general format. In this sense, the project was exemplary: Through a
study of a particular case the students got an insight into a problem of
a general format.7 Naturally the students calculations were based on
7 For a discussion for exemplarity as an educational concept, see Skovsmose

(1994).
13
CHAPTER 1
some extreme simplifications; nevertheless the project illustrated some

of the principal ideas in input-output calculations with respect to farming.
In particular, the role of mathematics was important in order not only
to conduct the calculations, but also to formulate the whole idea of
input-output estimations.
The Energy project provided a basis for addressing many principal
discussions with respect to farming, the uses of energy, and the supply
of food on a global scale. One can compare input-output figures with
respect to different types of production and for different countries. By
looking through statistics, the students found that farming in the USA
demonstrated the most problematic figures, as the highest amount of
energy supply, not least in terms of petrol, was used in this type of
farming. Through the project the students were able to address several
issues of global relevance. In this sense one could think of the project
as illustrating how mathematics education could empower students
and thereby contribute to the development of a critical citizen-ship.
1.3 Being undetermined

Here we might have run into some confusion. Some interpretations
could bring us to see mathematics education as disempowering, others
as empowering. Mathematics education being undetermined has to do
with this confusion as well as with the open character of both em-
powerment and disempowerment.
Very different perspectives can be applied with respect to empower-
ment and disempowerment. It is, for instance, possible to extract from
a conservative economic discourse categories of competencies, and
claim that a main element in empowering students through mathematics
education is to ensure that they obtain competencies to meet the
demands of the labour market. These demands can be thought of both
from the perspective of the individual (an empowered person will get an
adequate salary) and from the perspective of the company (employing
empowered persons will lead to a satisfactory level of profit). According
to this perspective, empowered persons can be compared to well-
functioning batteries; a mathematics education has to ensure that the
batteries become charged in a proper way. However, the discourse of
empowerment and disempowerment has also taken a completely
14
different route. Thus, the discourse about mathematics education for

social justice has outlined how, through mathematics education, students
can develop a new self-esteem that makes it possible for them to talk
back to authority as might be illustrated by the Energy project.
Empowerment and disempowerment are contestable concepts:
the meanings of both can go in almost any direction. Therefore, it might
not be surprising that it is possible to claim that mathematics education
is disempowering, and then follow that up with the claim that mathe-
matics education is empowering. Both statements, contradictory as they
might appear, seem possible to support with a wealth of observations.
This brings us to see mathematics education as undetermined.
This means that one cannot attach any essentialism to the func-
tioning of mathematics education. The whole picture of possible dis-
empowering functions of mathematics education could turn out true,
but it need not be true. Nor do the possible empowering functions of
mathematics education necessarily become fact. Not even in a carefully
elaborated project, like Energy for instance. Here the students might
have greatly enjoyed having breakfast in the school. Some might have
enjoyed the ride on the bike. Some might have feared that they would
be riding more slowly than the others. Some might have liked walking
around the field. Some might have disliked the smell of the pigs. Some
might enjoyed doing the calculations. Some might have looked forward
to returning to regular mathematics lessons. The students might have
had very different experiences. There is no simple fact that demons-
trates that the students became able to talk back to authority.
There are no essentials in mathematics education. This, however,
does not imply that mathematics education operates in a neutral way.
In one context it could appear a disaster, while in another it could
provide wonders.
It should also be noted that the two-dimensional formulation, that
mathematics education could be either empowering or disempowering,
is highly problematic. Mathematics education could have very many
different functions, which cannot simply be labelled good or bad.
A mathematics education could be empowering in different senses of
empowerment. It could be empowering for some, and disempowering
for others. It could be empowering for some as they could obtain
competencies that are valued in the labour market. It could also be
considered disempowering precisely because people may come to
15
CHAPTER 1
assume a prescription-readiness. So when I describe mathematics

education as undetermined, I refer to a great uncertainty with respect to
the possible functions mathematics education might have in a particular
socio-political situation. This uncertainty reflects the openness of the
situation as well as the openness of the conceptual framework through
which we try to grasp the situation. The undetermined nature of mathe-
matics education is important to acknowledge. If mathematics education
was a closed process without social significance, there would not be
much for a critical mathematics education to be concerned about.
But there is.
16
Chapter 2
Diversity of situations
Let me describe some photographs from the book The Cradle of Inequality
with texts by Cristovam Buarque and photos by Sebastio Salgado.8
On the cover of the book a girl, sitting in a dark classroom, is con-
centrating on taking notes. She might be about 7 years of age. She is
wearing a white dress; she has bare feet; she looks poor.
Inside the book we see several scenes representing similarly
poignant moments. We see a photograph of a group of young people
sitting in the shadow of big trees. They are refugees from the Sudan
who have arrived in Kenya. Together with a blackboard balancing on an
easel, the shadows of the trees make up the classroom. A camel is passing
by on the outskirts of the classroom. At another photo we see a group of
children with bunches of branches in hand on their way to school. They
are from Iraqi Kurdistan. It is winter, and they have to ensure the heating
of their classroom. A photo shows students from Afghanistan, com-
pletely engrossed, following a lesson on how to recognise different types
of bombs and landmines that, still unexploded, might be scattered around
in the vicinity. We see photos of dark and sinister classrooms missing
all kinds of educational equipment and facilities, but crowded with pupils.
These photos show teaching and learning conditions very different from
those normally assumed in mathematics education research.
Statistics show that the number of children in what has been
referred to as the developed world makes up just 10% of the total
population of children in the world. The number of children in what
is referred to as the developing countries makes up an astonishing 86%9
Considering the statistic, and considering the world as a whole, the
photographs in The Cradle of Inequality seem to show teaching-learning
conditions which are quite more common than not.
8 See Salgado and Buarque (2005).

9 See UNESCO (2000). See also Skovsmose (2006c).
17
CHAPTER 2
2.1 A bias in mathematics education research?

If we consider the classroom settings that are described in much research
literature in mathematics education, we find a dominance of what I have
referred to as the prototypical mathematics classroom. (I could just as well
have talked about the stereotypical classroom.) Such a classroom always
reflects good order and affluence. We do not find students that tend
to disrupt the process of education. We might find students who have
difficulties with mathematics, but, according to the research literature,
they struggle with the mathematical tasks and concepts presented to
them. They might provide examples of conceptual misunderstandings,
which can be analysed in greater detail. However, one does not find
extensive transcriptions of overtly disruptive conversations, or presenta-
tions of students whose behaviour spoils the lesson.10 The prototypical
classroom is cleansed of noise. Naturally part of the dialogue selected
for transcription might include some side remarks made by the students
that provide the transcription with a little agreeable amusement. In the
mathematics education research literature, we very rarely find hungry
students, or students suffering from illnesses or psychoses. We do not find
mathematics classrooms in warlike areas. Nor do we find discussions of
what poverty means in terms of obstructions to doing homework.
Some very strong paradigmatic criteria might be operating with-
in mathematics education research. Such criteria have shaped and
constructed the prototypical mathematics classroom. This prototype
dominates the research literature, but it might be far from representa-
tive of the variety of classrooms in this world. Naturally I could try
to develop many statistics with respect to research in mathematics
education as it has developed over time, but let me just present a
simple conjecture: 90% of research in mathematics education concentrates on
the 10% the most affluent classroom environments in the world, while 10% of the
research addresses the remaining 90% of the classrooms.11
Let me make a few comments on this conjecture. The prototypical
classroom is not to be associated simply with classrooms in the so-called
developed countries. There are very many classrooms in developed
countries that do not demonstrate any prototypical features: the students
10One such example is found in Alr and Skovsmose (2002, Chapter 5).
11 Observations referred to in Skovsmose and Valero (2008) and Skovsmose
(2006c), brought me to formulate this guess.
18
DIVERSITY OF SITUATIONS
might demonstrate a behaviour that is noisy and disruptive and far

from stereotypical. And it should not be forgotten that in addition these
countries include a solid share of the worlds poverty with devastating
implications for the school systems. Furthermore there are many affluent
educational environments in the developing countries; prototypical as
well as non-prototypical classrooms can be found the world around.
Research addressing non-prototypical educational settings does
exist.12 In particular, the ethnomathematical research programme has
had an important impact, establishing research in non-prototypical
settings. The situation however is not straightforward. My 90%10%
conjecture is only a tentative guess, but I have not been able to find
evidence that refutes it. I would, however, be more than happy if it
could be documented that my guess was wrong.
Until that happens, we have to consider the possibility that research
in mathematics education involves a problematic bias with serious
implications with respect to both theory and practice. The bias is esta-
blished through the priorities adopted in the selection of empirical
domains, and it becomes multiplied through to the theoretical frame-
works that become developed on the basis of the empirical bias. It might
be that the teaching and learning of mathematics is largely addressed
in the literature as if everywhere we are dealing with ideal classrooms,
ideal teachers and ideal students.13
2.2 Contrast through globalisation and ghettoising

When we talk about teaching and learning, we unavoidably talk about
teaching and learning in diverse situations. Yet, I have considered other
variables than the situation. We could for example try to express similar
phenomena through the notion of culture. It is common sense to talk
about teaching and learning in different cultural settings, and also to
emphasise that the interpretation of any form of teaching and learning
has to be done with reference to the cultural setting in which it operates.
12 See, for instance, Valero (2004, 2007); Valero and Zevenbergen (Eds.)
(2004); Vithal (2007, 2009); and Vithal and Valero (2003).
13 See Valero (2002) for at discussion of the idealised students and idealised
teachers.
19
CHAPTER 2
I completely agree. Particularly in connection with the ethnomathe-

matical research programme, the notion of culture has been elaborated
carefully. Thus Ubiratan DAmbrosio associates ethno with culture.14
However, it is also important to talk about teaching and learning
in different socio-economic contexts. We should remember that poverty
and favelas as well as extreme wealthy neighbourhoods are distributed
around the world: in So Paulo, Johannesburg, Bombay, New York,
Madrid, etc. Rich neighbourhoods might be situated immediately adja-
cent to favelas and squatter settlements. To refer to such contrasts in
terms of cultural differences makes some sense, but the very notion
of culture might also provide a false picture of the differences. Extreme
contrasts are distributed around the world according to a violent logic
of globalisation and ghettoising, and I see the distribution of teaching-
learning conditions as a socio-economic structuring, and not only as a
cultural structuring.
We can also consider teaching and learning in different political
contexts. Wars and violence may structure the whole meaning of going
to school. One could address this structuring in terms of culture and
talk about the culture of a war zone. Children who live in the vicinity
of unexploded land-mines might have a different culture, but I find
that in such circumstances the notion of culture is inadequate to fully
describe the root differences. I prefer to talk about the diversity of
political conditions.
The photographs in The Cradle of Inequality show cultural differences,
but above all they demonstrate socio-economic and political differences.
This observation brings me to the notion of situation. By this term I refer
to cultural, socio-economic and political contexts of the teaching-learning
processes. I want to use an expression that draws our attention to this
variety of contexts without including an overloaded set of assumptions
about the nature of the contexts. A concern of critical mathematics
education is to recognise the diversity of situations in which the
teaching and learning of mathematics is taking place around the world.
This would have an impact on the concepts and theories that become
developed. In particular, it is a concern of critical mathematics education
to prevent from repeating the bias that is established through discourses
centred around the prototypal mathematics classroom.
14 See, for instance, DAmbrosio (2006). See also DAmbrosio (2010) for a
broader exploration of a mathematics education for survival with dignity.
20
Chapter 3
Students foregrounds
Consider two South African children born on the same day in 2000.
Nthabiseng is black, born in a poor family in a rural area in the Eastern
Cape province, about 700 kilometres from Cape Town. Her mother
had no formal schooling. Pieter is white, born in a wealthy family in
Cape Town. His mother completed a college education at the nearby
prestigious Stellenbosch University.
One the day of their birth, Nthabiseng and Pieter could hardly be
held responsible for their family circumstances: their race, their parents
income and education, their urban or rural location, or indeed their sex.
Yet statistics suggests that those predetermined background variables
will make a major difference for the lives they lead. Nthabiseng has
7.2 percent change of dying in the first year of her life, more than twice
Pieters 3 percent. Pieter can look forward to 68 years of life, Nthabiseng
to 50. Pieter can expect to complete 12 years of formal schooling,
Nthabiseng less than 1 year. Nthabiseng is likely to be considerably
poorer than Pieter throughout her life. Growing up, she is less likely to
have access to clean water and sanitations, or to good schools. So the
opportunities these two children face to reach their full human potentials
are vastly different from the outset, through no fault of their own.15
This is how the World Bank Report of Equity and Development is
introduced. The opportunities of life of these two children are different,
and I am going to develop further considerations about opportunities.
3.1 Foreground
By the foreground of an individual, I understand the opportunities
which the social, political, economic and cultural situation provides
15 See, Word Bank (2006: 1). Renuka Vithal referred to this formulation in
her lecture at the Symposium Mathematics Education, Democracy and Development:
Challenges for the 21st Century. Faculty of Education, University of Kwazulu-
Natal, Durban, 4 April 2008.
21
CHAPTER 3
for the person.16 This formulation, however, needs a number of clari-

fications.
Do we consider the description of Nthabisengs and Pieters
opportunities, two radically different foregrounds are outlined: the
opportunities these two children face to reach their full human potentials
are vastly different. However, the foreground is not uniformly deter-
mined by the social, political, economic and cultural situation. It might
be that Nthabiseng lives much longer than 50 years; it might be that
Pieter dies in a traffic accident, still a promising university student.
The statistics through which their opportunities in life are characterised
only reveals tendencies, which set the foreground of the person.
I do not see the foreground of the person as a social fact or as
a configuration of tendencies. A foreground does not exist in any
objective sense that can be specified through statistical investigations.
I see the foreground of a person not only as composed of tendencies but
also as being formed through interpretations of future possibilities.
A foreground brings together expectations, hopes, frustrations, etc.
One could relate the notion of foreground to the notion of life-world,
which refers to life conditions as they are experienced. Edmund Husserl
provided a rich interpretation of life-world which I find inspiring.
However, he also buried the notion beneath a pile of phenomenological
assumptions which I find problematic.17 Thus, the notion of life-world
refers not only to given social facts or to situations as they might be
described through statistics; it also refers to how facts and situations
are experienced. I see foreground as referring to a particular province
of the life-worlds. It is the province which is directed towards the future.
The life-worlds of Nthabiseng and Pieter are different, and so are their
foregrounds.
The notion of foreground relates to the notion of background.
One could see the background of a person as a determining factor for
his or her foreground, and to some extent this makes sense. Thus, the
backgrounds of Nthabiseng and Pieter frame their foregrounds. Some
tendencies that are part of their foreground are constructed as part
16 For the introduction of the notion of foreground, see Skovsmose (1994).

See also Skovsmose (2005, 2007b); and Alr, Skovsmose and Valero (2009). See
also Lindenskov (2010).
17 In particular I do not interpret life-world in terms of a stream of con-
sciousness as he suggested. See Husserl (1970), as well as Skovsmose (2009b).
22
STUDENTS FOREGROUNDS
of their background. Nevertheless, foreground and background are

different kinds of matter. A persons background comprises events
that have taken place, while their foreground is composed of events that
might take place. While the foreground of a person is an open situation,
the background has somehow solidified into history. (This simple obser-
vation needs, however, a modification as a background also includes
an interpretation of what has taken place.)
I have talked about the foregrounds of Nthabiseng and Pieter
in individual terms, but we could also talk about the foreground of a
group of people. The people from the community to which Nthabiseng
belongs share foregrounds. They are submitted to the same statistics.
Their foreground is formed through shared statistic parameters. Still
this does not rule out that opportunities in life can be experienced
differently and acted out differently. Peiter shares foregrounds with many
other young people in his neighbourhood: statistically speaking they
have similar life-opportunities being radically different from the oppor-
tunities of the group with whom Nthabiseng shares statistics. Framed by
similarities in tendencies, individuals can act out possibilities in different
ways. This means that the notion of foreground includes reference to
both collective and individual features of life-worlds.
Foregrounds include experiences and interpretations, which are
elaborated through interaction and communication. Foregrounds include
shared hopes and frustrations. Thus the foregrounds of both Nthabiseng
and Peiter are elaborated through interactions although interactions
taking place in widely separate communities. The construction of fore-
grounds of young people takes place with reference to many different
groups: their friends, their parents, their stars.
A foreground may include contradictions. We should not expect
a foreground to be an expression of an all-embracing rationality which
ensures a wall-to-wall consistency. A foreground could be inconsistent
and multi-layered. It is possible that a young person in one situation
could establish a foreground in a most captivating format, while in a
different situation only the most desolate possibilities appear to be
available. Foreground could include impossible dreams, realism and
frustration in an extensive and contradictory mix.
A foreground can be bleak. When only desolate possibilities are
experienced by the person, I talk about a ruined foreground. That a
foreground is ruined does not mean that there is no foreground, only
23
CHAPTER 3
that it seems devoid of attractive possibilities. A ruined foreground does

not support the development of aspirations, but more likely of frustra-
tions. A foreground can be ruined through social, economic, political
or cultural acts. In the most direct way the ruination of black peoples
foreground was an integral part of the apartheid system of South
Africa. Black people did not have the same opportunities as white people.
Black people could only live in certain designated areas; they could not
own property; they could not use the same facilities; not go to the
same hospitals, etc. The different foregrounds of Nthabiseng and Peiter
have to be interpreted in light of what was taking place during the
apartheid era.
There are many Nthabisengs and Peiters around the world.
Differences between their foregrounds are recapitulated by the fore-
grounds of students from poor and rich neighbourhoods respectively in
any metropolis of the world. They are recapitulated between the fore-
grounds of students coming from rural and from urban areas. They
are recapitulated between foregrounds of immigrant students and
other students.
3.2 Intentionality and learning

The notion of intentionality was elaborated by Franz Brentano as part of
his psychological and philosophical framework.18 His aspiration was to
characterise human consciousness in a way that clearly separated it
from any mechanical phenomenon.
It does not make any sense to talk about a stone falling towards
the earth due to its intentions of doing so. A stone has no intentions,
no motives for falling. Its falling should be explained in terms of cause
and effect, and not in terms of intentions and motives. According to
the mechanical world view this observation not only applies to stones
but to any natural phenomena, and also to human actions. As a cones-
quence, human action must be interpreted not with reference to any
intentions on the part of the acting person but by being located as part
of mechanical system. When explained adequately, any human action is
identified as part of the operation of a mechanical structure. One has
18 See Brentano (1995a, 1995b).
24
to present the line of causalities that end up in the physical operations

which characterise the act.
Contrasting the mechanical world view, Brentano emphasised the
importance of the directedness of the human consciousness, and he
established the notion of intentionality as being crucial for under-
standing human activities. The notion of intentionality was elaborated
further by one of Brentanos students, namely Husserl.19 He did not
see human consciousness as derived from some underlying mechanical
operations, but as a phenomenon that had to be investigated for its
own sake and within its own conceptual framework. According to this
way of thinking the notion of intentionality becomes important. I want
to assume a connection between human actions and intentionality;
I want to interpret an action in terms of its directedness.
The notion of intentionality can be related to the notion of
foreground. If we look for motives for an action, it is important to
consider the foreground of the actor. Naturally it makes sense to look at
the background as well, as this is part of the framing of the foreground.
However, I see intentionality as relating more directly to the foreground
of the person, as it represents a directedness. The foreground represents
the raw material for establishing motives.20
Actions can take many forms, and in particular I want to see
learning as action, i.e. as performed by the person.21 Learning is an
action which includes intentions and motives. When we want to investi-
gate learning phenomena, we have to consider the intentionality of the
learners. One could naturally ask if any form of leaning could be seen as
action. Maybe this could only be done in case we propose an impressive
concept streaching of the notion of action. One could think of the
small child learning the mother tongue. Does this learning take the
form of an action by the child? Well, one could claim that this learning
is an expression of the intentionality of the child. One could also think
of soldiers learning how to march. This learning seems to be an
expression of direct orders, although one could claim that the soldiers
19 See, for instance Husserl (1998).

20 While the notion of motive refer to the foreground of the person, the
notion of motivation, in particular as developed by the behaviourism, refers to
the background of the person.
21 For a presentation of learning as action, see Skovsmose (1994). I also see
teaching as action, but what this implies I am not going to explore here.
25
CHAPTER 3
somehow have the intention of following orders. Whatever comes

from such considerations, I want to emphasise that learning, as we most
often see it in school, can be interpreted in terms of actions. This
draws our attentions to the students intentionality, their foreground,
and their motives (or lack of motives) for learning.
When learning is seen as action, we can interpret different learning
phenomena for instance the students engagement (or lack thereof )
and their achievements (or lack thereof) with reference to their fore-
ground. In particular a ruined foreground can obstruct bringing inten-
tions into the learning process. Let us consider again Nthabisengs and
Pieters situation. How could we interpret their activities in school and
their learning achievements? Let us take a look at what has been referred
to as white research in black education.22 In this research it seems to
have been documented that black childrens achievements are lower
than white childrens. Such results can easily be enveloped in a discourse
about how to organise a compensatory education for these children.
If, however, we pay particular attention to the foreground of children,
their achievements might be interpreted differently. In South Africa
under the apartheid system, many career possibilities were simply not
accessible to black students, such as becoming an engineer, a doctor,
or a dentist, for instance.
To put it directly: any black childs foreground was ruined. The
apartheid era belongs to the past, but economic differences are not
simply eliminated. Nthabisengs and Pieters life conditions are different,
and so are their foregrounds. Their school performances might be
different as well. My suggestion is that we are careful when we try to
formulate a discourse with respect to such differences. When learning
is seen as action, the differences in learning achievements may be
related to differences in acting conditions. Such differences have to do
with the different possibilities society makes available to different groups.
Weak performances in learning can be provoked by a ruined fore-
ground, which in turn can be caused by socio-political acts of exclusion
and suppression.
Let us again take a look at the photos from The Cradle of Inequality.
The refugees are sitting beneath a tree in Kenya. What life opportunities
do they face? What would statistics show? What could they themselves
22For a critical investigation of white research in black education see
Khuzwayo (2000). See also Skovsmose (2005).
26
imagine? What about the children who are bringing firewood to the
school to ensure the heating? And the children from Afghanistan; how
does their foreground look? This could inspire us to do some foreground
investigation, and this is in fact an idea which has guided a whole project
Learning from Diversity in which I have participated. 23 We have
considered the foreground of immigrant children in Denmark, of
children from a favela, and of Indian students in Brazil. There are
many different observations to be made. The more general one is that
considering students foreground is part of interpreting the way they
approach learning.
3.3 Meaning in mathematics education

Different theories of meaning have had a strong impact on mathematics
education. I will shortly outline the compositional theory of meaning
as proposed by the so-called modern mathematics education and the
background-theory of meaning, which has been particularly elaborated
within the ethnomathematical approach. In place of these theories of
meaning I will suggest that meaning become investigated with respect
to action, intentionality and foreground, and I will illustrate what this
could imply.
The discussion of the meaning of concepts has long been a key
concern in mathematics education; thus what can be referred to as
modern mathematics education, emerging in the late 1950s, paid
particular attention to the notion of meaning. The principal assumption
was that the meaning of a complex concept should be established by
addressing the meaning of its constituting parts.24 Furthermore, it was
assumed that the logical organisation of mathematical concepts (in
particular as provided by Nicolas Bourbaki) also defines an educational
23 Learning for Diversity was directed by Helle Alr, Paola Valero and myself.
See, for instance, Alr, Skovsmose and Valero (2009).
24 In analytic philosophy a particular concern was to investigate in what
sense and to what degree the meaning of a complex or molecular concept

could be seen as a composition of meaning of its constituting atomic
elements. Frege made a distinction between sense (Sinn) and reference
(Bedeutung), which was crucial to this clarification. See Skovsmose (2009b) for
a discussion of Freges distinction.
27
CHAPTER 3
organisation of how complex concepts should be taught and learnt.

For instance, the mathematical notion of group can be defined as a not
empty set, G, organised with an operation, *. The operation, *, can be
defined as a function from G X G to G, fulfilling certain conditions.25
A function can be defined as a set of ordered couples which fulfils a
particular condition. And in order to get started on this sequence of
definitions, one has to grasp the meaning of the basic set-theoretical
concepts. As a consequence, one could think of the curriculum in terms
of a sequence of concepts to be learnt, as follows: set, ordered couple,
set of ordered couples, relation, function, operation, etc. According to the
modern mathematics education, the logical structure of mathematics
defines the educational structure of the curriculum. This implies that the
meaning of molecular mathematical notions are going to be established
through the meaning of their atomic parts. The Modern Mathematics
Movement has been criticised, but its compositional theory of meaning
has been broadly assumed.
A different theory of meaning has also got a broad application in
mathematics education. It has been assumed that meaning relates to
the background of the person, which implies that in order to establish
meaningful education one has to relate the educational content to the
students background. The background-theory of meaning has been
emphasised in ethnomathematical studies, which have scrutinised the
cultural background of the students in order to establish a meaningful
mathematics education for them.
I find the compositional as well as the background-theory of
meaning to contain limitations, and I suggest a different approach to
discussing educational meaning. It is possible to talk about the meaning
of activities or actions, and it is this kind of meaning on which I would
like to concentrate. The meaning of an action I relate to the inten-
tionality included in the action, which in turn relates to the fore-
ground of the acting person. The meaning of a classroom activity is
constructed by the students, and this construction depends on what
the students may see as their possibilities; it depends on their fore-
grounds and intentions. Thus, I operate with a close relationship between
meaning, intentionality and foreground; let me illustrate with a couple
of examples.
25 The conditions are: the operation, *, is associative; there exists a neutral
element e in G; and every element in G has a inverse elements also in G.
28
In a public school in Rio Claro, a city in the interior of the So

Paulo State, the teacher wanted to introduce project work in mathe-
matics. She asked what topics the students wanted to work with, and
one suggestion was surfing and surf boards. The teacher did not find
this to be a good possibility. The school was located in a poor neigh-
bourhood. Most likely the students had never been at the beach and
never seen the ocean. How could working with surfing make sense to
them? If one relates meaning merely to already established experiences
and to the background of the students, surfing does not appear meaning-
ful to the students. However, one might miss some important aspects of
what meaningfulness might include. It could very well be that surfing
makes part of the students foreground, and, as a consequence, elabo-
rating a project about surfing could be extremely meaningful.26
For a long period of time, I participated in a mathematics education
project in South Africa. 27 We struggled with the challenge of what
could make sense to children living in a village beyond the mountains?
As mathematics educator one could try to investigate activities in the
village through a mathematical archaeology and try to indentify how
mathematics might be part of the way the field work is conducted, how
the crops are divided, how the cooking is done, etc. One could identify
mathematical activities as related to these everyday activities, and on
this basis try to organise a meaningful mathematics education for the
children. But we need not be surprised in case meaningful mathematics
education for these children could be developed around what we
might call pilots mathematics. The children from the village beyond the
mountains may only have experienced the airplane in the form of a thin,
white, downy line high up there in the sky. But piloting might none-
theless be part of their foreground. The intentionality of the children
might seek beyond their actual situation; it might be pointing away
from their background.
As part of the project Learning from Diversity, we conducted
different foreground investigations, for instance of young people from
Brazil with an Indian background.28 One Indian student expressed a
26 In a conversation this example about surfing has been presented to me by

Miriam Godoy Penteado.
27 See Vithal (2010).
28 See Skovsmose, Alr and Valero in collaboration with Silvrio and Scandiuzzi
(2008); and Skovsmose, Scandiuzzi, Valero and Alr (2008).
29
CHAPTER 3
strong interest in continuing to work in the fields and to stay in the

Indian community. This perspective provided one kind of meaning to
the mathematical activities he experienced in school. Another student
wanted to study medicine. He expressed the clear opinion that a major
problem for Indian communities in Brazil has to do with health. To him
it was important to come to study medicine and to be able to return to
the Indian communities as a qualified doctor. This perspective provided
a different set of meanings to classroom activities. Thus he felt sure
that even though he did not know the particular relevance of the
different mathematical notions and theories, mathematics was relevant
for conducting further studies, not least within medicine. His fore-
ground provided a set of meanings to the classroom activities that
could not be identified if one concentrated solely on his background.
I have participated in a project, conducted by Miriam Godoy
Penteado, which concentrated on students whose conduct had been
highly problematic, not only in the classroom but for the whole school
environment. What could be thought of as meaningful education for
such students? What could make these students who have resisted any
form of learning engage in something? What could they experience as
meaningful mathematics education? It turned out that the students
liked to work with mathematical games and with puzzles. They liked
to work out winning strategies. Dynamic geometry where one could
work on a computer also turned out to captivate these students. How
could that be? Let me just emphasise that the construction of meaning is
a complex process. One experiences meaningfulness when ones inten-
tionality is part of ones learning activities. But what might count as
meaningful could include many surprises. There are no regulations and
simple guidelines for establishing meaningful education and for anticipa-
ting students intentionality.29
29 See also Penteado and Skovsmose (2009).
30
Chapter 4
Landscapes of investigation
In order to establish meaningful mathematics education and to make
the students active learners, there are no simple principles to be applied.
Meaningfulness is something that needs to be searched for. One sugges-
tion is to search outside the school mathematics tradition, and I have
been fascinated by the possibilities that project work may offer. How-
ever, project work cannot be presented as a universal recipe for providing
meaningful activities for the students. In order to broaden the search
for educational possibilities, I will explore landscapes of investigation.30
Such a landscape provides an environment for teaching-learning
activities. While sequences of exercises, so characteristic for the school
mathematics tradition, establish a one-way route through the curriculum,
the possible routes through a landscape of investigation are not well-
defined. A landscape can be explored in different manners and through
different routes. Sometimes one must proceed slowly and carefully,
sometimes one can jump around and make bold guesses.
One important idea of establishing landscapes of investigation is
to provide meaning to the activities in which the students are partici-
pating. Inquiry processes include possibilities for constructing meaning
which I do not find along the one-way route defined by sequences of
exercises. I see the notion of inquiry as closely related to the notion of
intentionality, as an inquiry presupposes involvement. Thus the inter-
pretation of learning as action brings us directly to the notions of inquiry
and investigation. Such activities exemplify a particular form of learning
as action. One can invite students into a landscape of investigation,
but cannot force them to do inquiries. It might be that the students
accept the invitation. They might be fascinated by the possibilities the
landscape provides. But it might also be that they are not intrigued.
They might decline the invitation. This depends on so many different
30For a presentation for landscapes of investigation see Skovsmose (2001),

and Alr and Skovsmose (2002).
31
CHAPTER 4
factors. Some landscapes might be attractive to some students in some

situations, while not to others.
4.1 Entering a landscape of investigation

What could it mean to open an exercise and try to enter a landscape of
investigation through this opening? Let us consider exercises which have
to do with linear functions. Two functions f and g from R to R
(R referring to the set of real numbers) are defined through the following
equations:
f(x) = 2x + 3
g(x) = -x + 5
With this information, one can formulate exercises of the following form:
Find the equation that defines the function f 1.

Find the equation that defines the functions fRg and gRf.
Draw the graphs of f and f 1.
And so on and so forth. There is no end to all the exercises that can be
formulated following this pattern. However, it is also possible to turn
this kind of exercises into a landscape of investigation. Maybe in the
following way:
Consider two functions, f and g, of the form f(x) = ax + b and
g(x) = cx + d. (The parameters a, b, c and d could take any values from
R, and f and g are functions from R to R.) Is it possible to provide
some characteristics of the graphs of the functions: f, g, f 1, g 1, gRf,
fRg, f 1Rg 1, etc.? One could introduce a new notion, //, where f//g
signifies the intersection (if it exists) of the graphs of the functions f and g.
One could then try to identify intersections, like: f//g, f 1//g 1, f//gRf,
gRf//g 1 etc. There is no end to the intersections one could consider.
One could try to identify some kind of pattern, at least among some of
the intersections. One could try to express the intersections in terms of
the parameters a, b, c, and d. In this way the initial set of exercises
could provide an opening to a spacious landscape of investigation.
32
LANDSCAPES OF INVESTIGATION
I can still remember, many years ago, when some of my students

were exploring exactly these properties of linear functions. I remember
their smiles when they started making their first discoveries. They
found an expression for calculating the intersection f//f1. They dis-
covered the relationship between the intersections f//g and f1//g1.
There were so many properties to discover. They had initiated the
investigations by looking at some particular functions. This way they
got some ideas of the possible properties they might be able to discover,
when they embarked on the more ambitious calculations using the
parameters a, b, c and d. The students were familiar with functions of
first degree as presented in their textbook, while matrix calculation
was far beyond their curriculum. They expressed all their discoveries in a
basic algebraic format. This, however, did not limit their investigations.
In fact I find it important not to try to relate mathematical discoveries
to more advanced mathematical notions. Discoveries can be made and
expressed on all levels and in all formats. The students involvement
in the investigation made me aware of the close relationship between
inquiry, intentionality and experience of meaning.
One could imagine the classroom turned into a research campus.
The students are working in different groups. Each group is researching
some properties. The research will go on for the mathematical lessons
for a whole week, and only on the following friday will there be a
seminar, where the research groups will present their discoveries. The
research groups could have been working on related topics if not on
the same topic. At the seminar they could see what the other research
groups had discovered. The research seminar could be open, as students
from other classes could be invited; maybe also other teachers.
It is easy to open more advanced topics to investigation. The
research projects could concern functions, F, from R to R defined in
the following way:
( ax 2 + bc + c )
2
F(x ) =
( dx 2 + ex + f )
2
How does the graph of functions of this format depend on values of the
parameters a, b, c, d, e and f ? (Naturally one also has to consider for
which values the function might not be defined.) The students could
initiate the investigations by making some simplifications. They could
33
CHAPTER 4
assign some specific values to the parameters and see what happens.
Using mathematical software such as Winplot could be useful. One
could assume specific values to all parameters except one, and then see
what happens to the graph when this parameter changes. A different
approach in doing simplification is to consider the function F to be
defined in the following way:
( ax + b )( cx + d )
F(x ) =
( ex + f )( gx + h )
Here there are more parameters to consider, but nevertheless it might

provide other ways of formulating the research results. It could be that a
research group prefers to initiate the investigations by considering a
function F defined in the following way:
( x a )( x b )
F(x ) =
( x c )( x d )
This formulation gives a simple formulation of the 0-points of both

the nominator and denominator. One could discuss the principal format
of the graph of F as related to the principal relationships between the
values of a, b, c and d.
Let us consider a different landscape. Let us talk about small
animals as being composed of small squares as illustrated in Figure 1.
It is possible to make one and only one animal of size 1, consisting
of one square. Apparently is also possible only to make one animal of
sizes 2, consisting of two squares. But what about an animal of size 2 that
Figure 1. A few 2-dimensional animals. (This and the following

photos by Mikael Sknstrm.)
34
is just connected by the corners of the squares? Could an animal be so

thin that it has a waistline consisting of only one point? We could
decide that animals need to be properly united by sides of the squares and
not only by corners, and this leaves us with only one animal of size 2.
Of size 3 there are two different animals. (Here we apply the notion of
symmetry as normally applied in mathematics. However, we could
instead decide to apply the stronger notion of identity as applied in
language. Here one finds the letters d, b and p to be different, although
one could claim that at the letter d is just a p that is standing up, and
that a b is a d sleeping on the other side.)
Let us look at animals of size 4. Figure 2 shows 5 different
animals of size 4, but could there be more?
The Figure 3 shows an animal of size 9. How many animals could
there be of size 9? One could imagine that for each natural number n
one could determine the number, A(n), of animals of size n. One could
start off by determining A(n) for some small numbers n, and we have
already noted that A(1) = 1, A(2) = 1, and A(3) = 2. Could one imagine
a sort of induction to be brought into play? Could it be possible to say
at least something about A(n+1), in case one knows A(n)?
One could also consider 3-dimensional small animals. Different
such animals of size 5 are shown in Figure 4. If we refer to the number
of 3-dimensional animals of size n as B(n), one could try to determine
B(n) for some natural numbers.
Figure 2. 2-dimensional animals of size 4.
35
CHAPTER 4
Figure 3. A 2-dimensional animal of size 9.
In in-service courses for teachers, I have used the example with

small animals many times. What continues to surprise me is that so many
different suggestions for solutions crop up, as well as for procedures to
reach solutions. Once I had about 120 teachers working briefly in
small groups trying to determine the number A(6), i.e. the number of
2-dimentional animals of size 6. Hardly any of the many groups came
up with the same proposal. I have had teachers drafting the animals
on paper, and also working with centi-cubes. Sometimes the differences
between dimensions have been addressed, sometimes it has not been
acknowledged.
We have talked about flat 2-dimentional animals and
3-dimentional animals. In mathematics one could also talk about,
say, 4-dimentional cubes. Does it then make sense to talk about 4-
dimensional animals? They, too, could be of different sizes, depend-
ing on how many 4-dimentional cubes they are composed of. 31
31 As an introduction to this discussion one can consider how makes faces a
4 dimensional dice might have. For a clarification of this see Rnning (2010).
36
Figure 4. Some 3-dimensional animals of size 5.
One could consider the number C(n) referring to the number of the
4-dimentional animals of size n. One could go on considering D(n),
referring to the number of 5-dimensional animals of size n, etc. One
could consider the sequences of numbers A(n), B(n), C(n), for a
particular value of n.
We started out considering animals of dimension 2, but we could
have started with animals of dimension 1. They will look like worms that
will be defined by their length. Let us call the number of 1-dimentional
animals of size n O(n). We then have O(1) = O(2) = O(3) = O(n)
= 1. Such worm-like animals are shown on the Figure 5.
37
CHAPTER 4
Figure 5. Some 1-dimensional animals.
Some observations are indicated in Figure 6, but there is much

more to explore.
Dimension/Size 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 1 1 2 4
3 1 1 2
4
5
Figure 6. A few observations about small animals.
Carrying out an investigation or making an inquiry is not restricted

to any particular mathematical domain, and certainly not just to advanced
mathematics. One might claim that the investigation of intersections
of graphs of linear functions does not provide an insight that is new
in any objective sense. But this is not relevant. The important activity
for the students is their own researching, it is not to provide genuine
research results. It is also interesting to note that the issues that could be
researched by the youngest children, as for instance the world of small
animals, may grow directly into the most difficult issues. Landscapes
of investigation are not restricted to certain domains or to certain
levels of mathematics.
38
As part of an inquiry what-if questions have a particular purpose.

The teacher may have formulated some possibilities through what-if
questions (having the investigations of the functions of the form
F(x) = (ax2 + bc + c)/(dx2 + ex + f) in mind: What will happen if we
assume that the parameter a is positive? What if we assume a to be 1? That
the students then take charge of the inquiry process is demonstrated by
the fact that they themselves start formulating what-if questions: Yes,
what if we assume all parameters to be 1? Let us assume all of them to
be 1, and then, using the graphic calculator, we can change one of the
parameters to get a value higher than 1, and then smaller than 1. Then
we get an impression of the significance of what each of the parameters
might mean for the graph of the function. Well, this is an idea, but why
take 1 as the initial value? Why not take 0? Then we see the significance
of each of the parameters turning positive or negative. Yes, well, but if
we start with the value of all parameters being 0, what do we then in
fact start with? Following such a conversation, we may get an idea of
how communication might be crucial for an inquiry process. Processes
of interaction and communication play quite a larger role in inquiry
processes compared to processes located in an exercise paradigm.32
4.2 Milieus of learning

Classroom practices based on landscapes of investigation contrast
with practices based on sequences of exercises. In this sense we can see
landscapes of investigation and sequences of exercises as establishing
different milieus of learning. But differences in learning milieus can also
be established in other ways, and I want to consider here the references
made when students are engaged in the activities. The references can
be made to mathematical ideas and notions; thus solving a mathematical
equation need not make reference to any non-mathematical entities or
issues. On the other hand, reference can be made to reality-like entities.
In this sense activities can be located in a semi-reality. Finally, references
can be to real-life situations.
32 Consider, for instance, the Inquiry Co-operation Model as investigated in
Alr and Skovsmose (2002).
39
CHAPTER 4
Sequences of Landscapes of
exercises investigation
References to pure
(1) (2)
mathematics
References to a
(3) (4)
semi-reality
Real-life references (5) (6)
Figure 7. Milieus of learning.
If we combine the distinction of different types of references and

the two paradigms of classroom actives, we get at matrix of learning
milieus as shown in the Figure 7. Let me comment on each of the
6 milieus.
The learning milieu of type (1) is positioned in a context of pure
mathematics as well as in the tradition of exercises. This learning milieu
is dominated by exercises, which can be of the form: (a) Reduce the
expression (b) Solve the equation (c) Calculate Mathematics text-
books are filled with exercises of this type with references only to
mathematical entities.
The learning milieus of type (2) are characterised as landscapes of
investigation located in numbers and geometric figures. The examples,
presented in the previous section, about investigations of functions
and small animals can serve as an example.
The learning milieu of type (3) milieu is located in the paradigm
of exercises with references to a semi-reality. What this could mean is
illustrated by the exercise I referred to previously:
A shop is offering apples for 0.12 Euro apiece, and for 2.8 Euros
for bags containing 3 kilos. There are 11 apples to each kilo.
Calculate how much Peter will save if he buys 15 kilos of apples
in bags of 3 kilos instead of buying them individually.
Certainly, there is talk about a shop, apples and prices. But we do not
have to do with real apples, or real prices, or any real shop. The situation
is artificial and the exercise is located in a semi-reality. It might be that
the references to this semi-reality might help students contextualise the
mathematics calculation. However, there are certain ways of operating
with respect to a semi-reality. As already mentioned, this reality func-
tions like a Platonic world, where all information is exactly true.
40
The milieus of type 4 are also located in a semi-reality, which takes

the form of a landscape of investigations. As an example, we can
consider the simulation programme Simcity4 that was used as part of
the project: City Planning.33 Simcity4 represents features of real city
planning, but certainly we have to do with a semi-reality. Simcity4 is
structured as a game, and the participants play the role of a mayor. As
part of the game different aspects of city planning can be addressed,
like the health system, the educational system, pollution, land value, trans-
ports, the locating of re-creative areas, law issues, supply of electricity,
water supply, sanitary facilities. The project City Planning took place
in a Brazilian community, so several aspects of the game had to be
discussed, as Simcity4 refers to a USA reality. Within the semi-reality
of the game, the students could make suggestions for city planning, and
be involved in different forms of calculations and decision making.
Playing with Simcity4 gives many opportunities for conducting investiga-
tions and such a game illustrates what a learning milieu of type 4 could
mean. Certainly, there are many such milieus to be constructed, both
with and without the use of computers.
Milieu 5 refers to real-life situations, and it is possible to provide
many exercises with such references. Thus one could imagine that the
whole idea of addressing input-output figures in farming become turned
into sequences of exercises. Thus the project Energy, as referred to in
Chapter 1, could have been elaborated into a sequence of exercises
including very many real-life references. These exercises would be diffe-
rent from the exercises formulated in the milieus (1) and (3). In order to
formulate exercises in the milieu (5) one has to conduct investigations
of the situation to which one is referring. This is quite different from
formulating exercises in milieu (3), where the whole construction of
exercises could, as mentioned, be done at the desk.
The milieu (6) is a landscape of investigation with real-life
references. As an example one can think of the project Energy as it in
fact was organised. This project takes place in a school context, meaning
that a landscape of investigation of type (6) does not constitute a real-
life project as such, but an educational activity with real-life references.
33 The whole project City Planning is presented by Biotto Filho (2008), and
I will return to it in Chapter 6, when I discuss the notion of reflection. The
computer game Simcity4 was launched in 2003 by the publisher of electronic
games Electronic Arts (EA Games).
41
CHAPTER 4
4.3 Leafing through a newspaper

It is a huge challenge to develop learning milieus of type (5) and of
type (6), but there is much inspiration to get when leafing through a
newspaper.34 As an experiment I leafed through Folha de So Paulo of
Monday, July 14, 2008. On the first page a headline imparts that the
number of people killed in traffic accidents has been reduced by 57%
due to a newly introduced Brazilian law which makes it illegal to drive
with even a minimal level of alcohol in the blood. This number can
be related the information that the number of guests to bars is reduced
by 30%. One could compare this information to situations in other
counties. One could also consider what the 57% reduction means in
real numbers during, say, a 1-week period or a 1-year period.
There are several articles in this Monday edition of the newspaper
which address a case of economic crime. There is information about
amounts of money that have been declared, or rather not declared.
Money has been used for bribery. There are many exercises with real-
life references to be made with respect to such numbers. For instance,
one could calculate how much money the state might have missed
in taxes, with reference to a specific case. The tax-perspective could
be explored further: How does the general level of taxation in Brazil
compare to other countries? What is the total amount of declared
income? Could one make any estimation of the total amount of non-
declared income? Naturally, in order to formulate exercises or land-
scapes of investigations with such real-life references, some research
would need to be carried out.
Folha de So Paulo contains a section about Finance, which is
overloaded with information expressed in numbers. As the stock market
is closed during weekends, the Monday edition of Finance might contain
few diagrams, but as soon as we get to the Tuesday edition, one could
dive into diagrams and tables showing the actual exchange rate, the
development of the exchange rates, and all kinds of numbers from the
stock market. There are articles about inflation and deflation as well as
other kinds of background information. Exercises could be constructed,
and landscapes of investigation could be opened through all such
references.
34 Once I was listening to a lecture by Philip Davis, where he conducted this
exercise.
42
What might be missing in numbers in the Monday section about

Finance is compensated for by all the numbers that occur in the Sports
Section. The reports on the sports events from the weekend, and let us
just concentrate on soccer, take two different formats. One is the
descriptions of what happened during the match: one team started very
powerfully, but then the referee overlooked a penalty, and during the
next 10 minutes The other format is provided in terms of numbers
and diagrams. We read about the new ranking of the teams. How many
victories and how many losses? How many victories on home ground,
and how many abroad? How many goals scored and how many
suffered. Furthermore, when looking at the Sports Section the following
days, one will find certain games to be subjected to a further mathe-
matical X-raying. The number of passes performed by each team would
be enumerated and compared. The number of successful passes also. The
number of kilometres covered by each player is calculated. Naturally the
number of free kicks, corners, yellow and red cards and so on make
up part of this mathematical X-raying.
The weather forecast includes a lot of information put into
numbers. At first this information appears different from the mathe-
matical X-raying of a soccer match. While the X-raying from the Sports
Section is part of a description of what has taken place, the mathe-
matical X-raying of the weather situation serves as part of a weather
forecast. This prediction is based on complex mathematical models, of
which we see only the surface in the newspapers. However, the whole
set of sports information turns into a scheme of forecasting when
gambling becomes the issue.
One section of Folha de So Paulo opens with a photograph,
covering almost half a page, showing two girls in front of a concrete
wall painted dark green. The wall was painted long ago and now dirt
and rain have turned the wall unsightly and dismal. Behind the wall
appears a two-store favela building in red tiles. The cement between the
tiles is protruding a bit here and there. Some of the red-brown tiles are
damaged. Like most other houses in a favela, nothing has been done
to the surface. No surface plastering, no paint. The rough red-brown
tiles just turn more and more dark and ugly from season to season.
The sky above the favela is dark and grey, as if ready to cry. It seems
surprising that the two girls are smiling. But does the photo contain
mathematics?
43
CHAPTER 4
First let us consider the geometry of the house. From the outside
it is a box. Towards the street it has no windows, but a clothesline filled
with laundry indicates life within the box. This could well be an over-
crowded life. One could consider how the rooms of the house are distri-
buted.35 How is the financing of house building in a favela organised?
On what conditions? And why is it so difficult to complete the cons-
truction of the house? One could consider the geometry of the favela:
How is the geometry of town planning? How is the network of streets
organised? The article in Folio de So Paulo that accompanies the photo
of the two-stored favela house discusses the growth of favelas. As there
is no more space left, the favelas must grow upwards. But how could
the feeble favela constructions be expanded upwards? They seem
predestined to grow sideward. Well, the photo illustrates that at least
two-storied favela-houses are possible.
Leafing through a newspaper can provide inputs to creating
learning milieus of both type 5 and type 6. When I try to develop a
landscape of investigation, I always consider the possible mathematical
depths of the landscape. For instance, when one considers developing
a landscape with respect to an advertisement of a special offer, and there
are many such advertisements in the Monday newspaper, then one could
do so acknowledging the profundity of the mathematics of finance.
Naturally, the different topics of the mathematics of finance need not
be explored as part of investigating the landscape, but the landscape
makes such explorations possible. An investigation of games, in particular
gambling with respect to sports results, can be addressed through
much elaborated mathematical theorising. Again such studies need not
be completed as part of the students work with the particular
landscape of investigation, but they are possible.
Leafing through Folha de So Paulo was a search for meaningful
examples. However, we have to remember that the students experience
of what is meaningful is an expression of relationships. There is no
simple logic of meaningfulness. There is no guarantee that the two girls
standing in front of the greenish concrete wall will have any interest in
35 As part of the project about City Planning, referred to previously, the

students were asked to draw a map of their house. The teacher got surprised
of the results. Had the students not understood what making a map would
mean? Subsequently the teacher realised that they had, and he came to under-
stand more about the poor living conditions provided by houses in a favela.
44
working with the geometry of a favela house. Even the most careful
investigations of actual issues from todays newspaper need to appear
meaningful to the students. The experience of meaningfulness depends
on whether or not students establish their intentionality as part of their
learning activities. Investigations and explorations are acts; they cannot
take place as forced activities. They cannot be completed without the
students actually doing the investigations; and this presupposes that the
students intentionality is part of the inquiry process.
4.4 Moving between different learning milieus

The matrix shown in Figure 7 represents a considerable over-
simplification. The distinction between the tradition of exercises and
landscapes of investigation is not clear-cut. In fact there is a huge terrain
of possibilities stretching between these two alternatives. Exercises
can be more or less narrow. A closed exercise can be opened a little,
and this opening could make space for problem-solving activities.
Problem solving could take the more open form of problem posing.
Landscapes of investigations could be narrow and specific. They could
be explored in the form of project works. Many different learning
milieus could be located along the horizontal direction of Figure 7.
We could also look at the distinction made with respect to the
references of the activities. According to Figure 7, references could be to
mathematics, to a semi-reality, or to real-life events. There could be
many overlapping possibilities, while other possibilities might be simply
ignored by the matrix, like the possibility of formulating landscapes
with, say, historical references.
The school mathematics tradition is safely located in the milieus
(1) and (3). However, one should not be tempted to think of a solution
to educational problems by moving rapidly to a learning milieu of type 6.
One can think of the matrix in Figure 5 as suggesting a way of reflecting
on what has taken place in the classroom. The teacher can consider in
what milieu he or she has been operating. One can consider last school
year: how was the movement between the different milieus? Where
were most classroom activities located? One can think of the matrix as
a planning devise: How to proceed between the different milieus in
the coming year?
45
CHAPTER 4
It makes sense to think of an educational process in terms of a

travel between different leaning milieus. There are no milieus that are
good as such, while others as such are bad, but there could be different
forms of travels. I find it problematic to place all classroom activities
in milieus of type (1) and (3), as we should not forget that the deve-
lopment of prescription readiness seems associated to milieus if type (1)
and (3). However, it might make good sense after, say, investigating the
intersections of functions of first degree to set up some consolidation
work where the students work with exercises related to the such
functions. Thus, after working in a milieu of type (2), one can return
to a milieu of type (1), before one proceeds, say, to a milieu of type (4).
Long ago, I was engaged in a mathematical project involving
young children, about 7 years old.36 The main aim of the project was
to plan and to construct a playground outside the windows of the class-
room where there was a small piece of ground available. Certainly, this
activity took place in a learning milieu of type (6), and, as a result of
the project, a small playground was in fact set up with the active help
of parents during a few weekends. Before that, however, much activity
had taken place. First off all, the children visited other playing grounds
in order to test which one was a good one. Children of seven are experts
in carrying out this kind of test. More difficult, however, was to specify
the exact quality of the good playing ground. How tall are the swings?
How much sand is needed? etc. Many things have to be measured,
and in order not to forget such measures it becomes important to
make notes about the observations. Not an easy task!
As part of the project, which lasted a couple of months, there
were periods of office work, which actually looked like an excursion
into a learning milieu of type (1). The children were organised in small
groups working in their offices. As in any public office, voices were
low. The children had juice or lemonade in plastic cups put in front of
them. They were sitting at their desks which, by some magic, now
looked like real office desks. Sometimes the office workers nibbled at a
cookie while they added up numbers. Sometimes the radio poured out
low, soft music. Sometimes the teacher played the guitar. The papers
scattered around the desks contained mostly exercises in adding and
subtraction.
36 The following presentation for the playground project is taken from
Skovsmose (2001) with only a few modifications.
46
The point is that the children during the more intensive periods
of project work had recognised the importance of being able to add
numbers, and to add them correctly. During office hours, this kind of
skill was consolidated, and reasons for doing such office work were
found in the previous periods of the project work. The actual set-up of
office work broke with the pattern of the normal exercise paradigm,
although the activity as such was of type (1). This illustrates that the
route between the different milieus might help to imbue the students
activities with new meaning. The office work did not take place in an
atmosphere of the school mathematics tradition, although it took place
within the exercise paradigm.
4.5 Zones of risks and possibilities

The different learning milieus presented in the Figure 7 can also be
referred to as different teaching-learning milieus. We are dealing not only
with milieus for the students, but certainly also for the teacher. Let me
say a few words about the milieus as they might be experienced by the
teacher.
From the teachers perspective moving away from the milieus of
type (1) and type (3) might appear as moving from a comfort zone into a
risk zone. This notion has been introduced by Miriam Godoy Penteado
in her study of teachers experiences in a new learning environment
where computers play a crucial role.37 Moving between different possible
learning milieus, and paying special attention to landscapes of investi-
gation will cause a great deal of uncertainty. This is illustrated in the
Figure 8.
Teachers could experience uncertainties with respect to how to
solve a problem. If their students are working with small animals, soon
issues will emerge which are far from straightforward to handle. Just
imagine that a group of students presents an algorithm for how to
proceed from animals of type 5 to animals of type 6. They start off from
a specific animal of type 5 and consider in how many different ways one
can add a square (if they are considering 2 dimensions) or a centicube
37 See Penteado (2001) for an exploration the notion of risk zone. See also
Yasukawa (2010).
47
CHAPTER 4
Sequences of exercises Landscapes of

investigation
References to pure 1 2
mathematics
References to a 3 4
semi-reality
Real-life references 5 6
Figure 8. Zones of comfort (indicated by light grey) and risks

(indicated by dark grey) as related to the different milieus of learning.
The figure has been elaborated by Biotto Filho.
(if they are considering 3 dimensions). Would it be possible to refine such

an approach to a more strict procedure? When students are exploring
graphs, in particular by making use of mathematical software, all kinds
of things might occur. Many more questions than any teacher could
possibly answer will arise.
The exercise paradigm establishes a way of keeping the students
questions in a predictable format. When we have to do with pre-
formulated exercises, a grid of right-wrong dichotomies can be applied
to all activities in the classroom. Such a regime of truths might provide
a comfort zone for the teacher; in fact it might provide a comfort
zone for the students as well. They know what to do, and when they
have done things in the right way. Measures of performance appear
transparent. However, as soon as students and teachers enter a land-
scape of investigation, the right-wrong grid turns obsolete. Uncertainties
emerge. The comfort zone is left behind as risks always accompany
landscapes of learning. However, a risk zone is a zone of possibilities.
Dealing with risk also means creating new possibilities.
48
Intermezzo
The modern conception
of mathematics
In this Intermezzo I want to outline what we might call the modern
conception of mathematics, which I associate with the development
of Modernity. It is a broad concept, and I will present it as including
three different sets of ideas: that mathematics is essential for under-
standing nature; that mathematics is a powerful resource for techno-
logical invention; and that mathematics is a pure rationality which
operates almost as an intellectual game, divorced from other human
activities.
These three sets of ideas inconsistent as they might be
establish discursive elements of how to think of and how to address
mathematics. They have been developed, integrated, and refined from
the time of the emergence of the Scientific Revolution and until the
conception of Post-Modernity was formulated.
The modern conception of mathematics does not provide an
adequate platform for formulating the concerns of critical mathematics
education. I will return to this issue in the following Chapter 5, where
I will present a critical conception of mathematics and discuss mathe-
matics in action. In this way I try to move beyond the modern con-
ception for mathematics. But let us consider more carefully what it is
we are going to move beyond.
Mathematics and natural science

The so-called Scientific Revolution proposes that science makes
progress. Let me just recapitulate some elements of this revolution. Not
least inspired by the ancient Greek philosophers, in particular the Pytha-
goreans and the neo-Platonists, Nicolaus Copernicus presented a helio-
centric world picture. This was a radical alternative to the geocentric
49
INTERMEZZO
description provided by Ptolemy, authorised by the church as providing

the proper picture of the universe. Copernicus assumed that the move-
ments of the planets were circles, but through a careful investigation
of the movement of the planet Mars, Johannes Kepler suggested that
the planets were moving in ellipses, with the sun positioned in one
of their loci.
Through Keplers formulations, mathematics obtained a unique
position. It seemed possible to describe exactly the orbits of the planets
through mathematics. In this way it became acknowledged that mathe-
matics captured the structures of nature. The Pythagorean idea that
everything is numbers got a new, powerful interpretation. Mathematics
could express the master plan for Gods creation of the world. And
we have to remember that an unquestioned belief in Gods existence
dominated the outlook of all the people who contributed to the Scientific
Revolution. Atheism as an intellectual possibility only emerged later.
Galileo Galilei distinguished between primary and secondary sense
data. While the primary sense data refers to positions, movements,
shapes, as well as to the number of entities, the secondary data refers
to colour, smell, sound, taste and texture. And, as pointed out by
Galilei, only the primary qualities have significance for understanding
nature. Exactly these qualities can be depicted mathematically. While
the secondary sense data signifies what we impose on nature, mathe-
matics helps to delineate the primary sense data, which signifies what
nature imposes on us. In short, mathematics brings forward the essence
of nature. (An aside: If Galilei were to read the Sports Section of Folha
de So Paulo, he might have associated the secondary sense data with the
narratives about what took place during the soccer game, and the primary
sense date with what is expressed in numbers and figures about the
match. And he might have claimed that a soccer game, and nature as a
whole, can most adequately be X-rayed by means of mathematics.)
Such observations bring us closer to the formulation of a
mechanical worldview, as suggested by Ren Descartes, who has often
been referred to as the first modern philosopher. At that time, the
spring driven clock had been invented, and the functioning of its subtle
mechanics was seen as similar to the functioning of nature. All of
nature was a mechanism with cogwheels and gears that were running
according to laws laid down by God, when he designed the universal
clockwork. Nature operated as a perpetual motion machine that
50
THE MODERN CONCEPTION OF MATHEMATICS
humankind could only dream of copying in minor form. However,

humankind was capable of grasping the laws according to which God
had created nature, and these laws had a mathematical format. In this
way mathematics obtained a paramount role in the understanding of
nature.
Descartes found that bodies, including heavenly bodies, either
stayed at rest or kept moving in straight lines as long as no external
force turned them in new directions. In fact Descartes talked about
the earth falling towards the sun. Such an idea caused, however, new
difficulties. If the natural movement of the earth is a straight line, while it
is in fact moving around the sun, then there must be some tremendous
force involved in crafting the elliptic movements. Here a strict mecha-
nical world view was not of much help: where to find the cogwheels
and gears that provided the fall of the earth towards the sun?
Isaac Newton provided the elegant completion of the Scientific
Resolution by formulating the laws which govern all motion on earth
as well as in heaven. The essential point is that we have to do with
the same laws for both earth and heaven. The same explanation applies
to the trajectory of a stone being thrown and the movement of the
earth around the sun. Furthermore, Newton brought the whole picture
together with the idea of gravity. Any two units of mass, wherever
they might be located in the universe, are attracting each other by a
force, which is proportional to the product of the two masses and inverse
to the square of their distance. Gravity operates across the whole
universe. The nature of this universal force, however, is not specified
in any mechanical way.
This whole development provided mathematics with a crucial
position. Mathematics ensures the basic insight into nature. It was well
known that mathematics was used to achieve the beauty and the ideal
proportions of any architectural construction. Saint Peters Cathedral in
Rome was a magnificent example of detailed mathematically formulated
architectural design. And now it became evident that God, as the architect
of all nature, had used a mathematical blueprint as well. As a conse-
quence, mathematical insight was important for establishing insight into
Gods creations. In fact mathematics represented an overlap between
human knowledge and Gods knowledge and wisdom.
After the Scientific Revolution, mathematics became an integral
part of the development of physics, and of any form of natural science,
51
INTERMEZZO
for that matter. No physical theory could be formulated without mathe-

matics. One need only think of how Albert Einstein conceptualised
the theory of relativity. Mathematics had become the language of natural
science.
Mathematics and technology

The notion of progress, as associated to Modernity, not only includes
the idea that science makes progress, but that society as a whole makes
progress. If we consider the general outlook of the Middle Ages, life
before death was of no particular significance in itself; what mattered
was life after death. The modern outlook, however, opened the way
for a different perspective.
The notion of progress comprises the idea that it is possible to
improve the quality of life on earth. The principle task becomes to
indentify recourses for progress, and one important idea is that scientific
progress is the motor of progress on a grand social scale. Scientific
insight may help to eliminate different forms of superstition which
could obstruct progress, but more directly, insight into nature makes it
possible to master nature.
Many problems appeared to be related directly to nature. Human-
kind was surrounded by a hostile environment, and one could think of
all the sufferings caused by storms, floods, draughts, etc. which could end
in hunger and disease. Nature was powerful, but through the powerful
natural sciences it seemed possible to master nature and to apply
natural forces for the benefit of humans needs. The insight into nature
initiated by the Scientific Revolution could be used for other purposes
than understanding nature itself. It could be used for technological
enterprises, and scientific insight made it possible to see nature as a
resource for welfare and progress.
Francis Bacon was somehow on the sideline of the Scientific Revolu-
tion. For instance, it is not clear to what extent he was aware of the
Copernican revolution. Furthermore, he did not grasp the point of using
mathematics for identifying the laws of nature. But he formulated
what I refer to as the technological enterprise: Knowledge can turn
powerful when insight into nature and technology are brought
together.
52
Soon it became clear that technological enterprises had to be

pursued via mathematics. The whole idea of mathematics-based techno-
logical invention was brought into effect. Important steps in this process
were taken when mathematics was recognised as a crucial topic to be
addressed at the polytechnic institutions that emerged after the founding
in 1794 of cole Polytechnique in Paris.
Being indispensable to technological enterprise, mathematics came
to signify the rationality of progress. With respect to natural sciences,
mathematics had become a necessary descriptive tool. As part of the
technological enterprise, mathematics became an indispensable cons-
tructive tool. It was not possible to realise any technological fabrication
without the use of mathematics. The Industrial Revolution initiated the
whole domain of mathematics-based construction. And as it was assumed
that technology ensures progress, the whole technological endeavour
was formulated in the most optimistic terms. In 1932, Charles A. Beard
celebrated technology as the fundamental basis of modern civilization,
and he emphasises how technology supplies a dynamic force of
inexorable drive, and indicates the methods by which the progressive
conquest of nature can be effected (Beards in Burry, 1932: page xx).
Mathematics and purity

A very different notion of mathematics has developed focussing on
intrinsic qualities of mathematics. This notion grew from developments
in mathematics research during the 19th century and turned into an
elaborated perspective at the beginning of the 20th century. It established
an extreme purification of mathematics at a time when mathematics
had turned indispensible in both science and technology.
The notion of mathematics as a pure discipline has always been
part of the conception of mathematics through Modernity, but let
us look at its extreme formulation which included three elements: the
development of an all- embracing axiomatic; an interpretation of mathe-
matical concepts without assuming the existence of any metaphysical
mathematical entities; and an interpretation of mathematical truth as a
pure formal property.
In Principia Mathematica IIII, written by Alfred N. Whitehead
and Bertrand Russell and published 19101913, the building up of
53
INTERMEZZO
mathematics starts with axioms, five in total, and proofs are cons-
tructed by applying only two simple rules of deduction. In this way,
Whitehead and Russell wanted to demonstrate that mathematics as a
whole can be built on a foundation of logic. 38 Principia Mathematica
follows the classic Euclidean paradigm by assuming that mathematics
can be demonstrated to consist of absolutely true statements. In order
to demonstrate the truth of all mathematics, the axiomatic organisation
of mathematics is crucial. An axiomatic reduces the seemingly over-
whelming task of assigning truth to all mathematical theorems to
assigning truth to the axioms of the construction. How, then, to assign
truth value to axioms? This assignment cannot be based on deduction.
Instead, we have to rely on intuition. This was Aristotles approach, and
this is how the Euclidean paradigm has been dealing with the problem
ever since. But how can we rely on intuition in such important matters?
The simplicity of the axioms seems to be a precondition, and the axioms
of Principia Mathematica seem so simple that their truth can be grasped by
the otherwise not too reliable human intuition. From then on, intuition
has no role to play in mathematics. The theorems rely on logical
deduction, and this deduction has the property that if A implies B,
and A is true, then B is true also.
So when intuition has provided the axioms with truth, deduction,
like the most reliable postal system, will deliver truth to all theorems.
So runs the ideal of the Euclidean paradigm, and Principia Mathematica
represents this paradigm. It demonstrates what it could mean to
include mathematics in an all-embracing axiomatic. However, Principia
Mathematica was to be the last major work in mathematics to assume
that mathematical truths could be established through an axiomatic.
In Grundlagen der Geometrie, first published in 1899, David Hilbert
suggests that Euclidean geometry does not presuppose references to any
entities at all. This idea allows for a way of working with mathematical
notions without having to subscribe to any particular ontology. The
axiomatic geometry includes concepts like point, line and plane, but they
have nothing to do with the empirical interpretation of point, line and
plane, nor does a Platonic world provide referents for these terms.
38 That the project of logicism, the reduction of mathematics to logic, was

not completed by Principia Mathematica IIII (some elements of intuition an
empirical observations seem impossible to eliminate) is a well known. And
soon the whole project of logicism was given up.
54
According to Hilbert, the axioms of a geometric theory express relation-

ships between undefined entities. These relationships are all we know
about these entities. Any particular qualities they have are irrelevant to
geometry. The development of geometry, then, consists in developing
the implications of the axioms, and here only a logical deduction can
be used. Any reference to intuitive properties of points, lines and
planes would be illegitimate. Thus, a mathematics textbook in geometry
would not be in need of any illustrations. Hilbert provides a surprising
and provocative answer to the question of mathematical existence. He
simply suggests that mathematical existence is equivalent to mathe-
matical consistency. To prove that geometric entities such as points, lines
and planes in fact exist does not entail any metaphysical considerations
about the nature of such entities. The whole discussion turns into a
question of proving that the geometric theory is consistent.39
Just as Hilbert dissolved the discussion of mathematical existence
into a meta-mathematical discussion of consistency, the formalists
transformed the discussion of mathematical truth into a discussion of
provability. In Outlines of a Formalist Philosophy of Mathematics, first
published in 1951, Haskell B. Curry presents the notion of mathematical
truth as a purely formal property. A formalised mathematical theory
presupposes a formal language, the basic units of which are symbols.
Symbols can be organised in sequences and some of these sequences
count as formulas. Some formulas are nominated as axioms. The rules
of deduction state when a formula is a consequence of other formulas.
A proof can then be described as a sequence of formulas with the
39 Hilbert wanted to address both consistency and completeness. Consistency

of a mathematical theory presupposes that it is not possible to prove a state-
ment, say p, and at the same time (by using a different deductive route) to
prove the statement non-p. Completeness of a theory means that of any two
pairs of statements, the one being a negation of the other like p and non-p,
one of these statements can be proved within the theory. So while consistency
presupposes that not too much can be proved, completeness presupposes
that not too little can be proved. Hilberts hope was to provide formalisations
of mathematical theories that were proven to be both consistent and complete.
Had this task been completed, Hilbert would have transformed the whole
philosophy of mathematics into a logical endeavour. In the most dramatic
way, however, Kurt Gdel proved that Hilberts hope must remain a dream:
A formalism, rich enough to contain the theory of natural numbers, would be
incomplete in case it was consistent.
55
INTERMEZZO
following property: Any formula in the sequence must either be an

axiom or a consequence of some of the previous formulas in the
sequence (according to stated rules of deduction). A theorem, then, is
any formula which occurs as the last formula in a proof.
Based on this clarification, mathematical truth can be described in
the following way: A formula can be true in the sense that it can be a
theorem in a formalised theory. Thus, the truth value of a mathematical
formula becomes relative to a certain type of formalism. The truth of
a mathematical statement (a formula) is identified as its provability with-
in a certain formalised theory. The implication of this is that any higher
conception of mathematical truth becomes abandoned. There is no need
for a Platonic world of ideas. In fact there is no need for anything to
refer to, as mathematics in not about anything. Mathematics is pure
formalism.40
Modern mathematics education

We have now seen three ways of looking at mathematics: mathematics
as a sublime way of obtaining an understanding of nature; mathematics
as an indispensable resource for technological development; and mathe-
matics as pure rationality. As mentioned these three ways of looking at
mathematics may be incompatible. Nevertheless, they supplement each
other in presenting an attractive image of mathematics. They bring
together the modern conception of mathematics which, in turn, frames
what I refer to as modern mathematics education. This education emerged
in a distinguishing format during the late 1950s.
The explicit formulation of modern mathematics education was
initiated with reference to the importance of mathematics for deve-
loping sciences and technology. Thus in 1959 the mathematician
Marshall H. Stone claimed that the teaching of mathematics would
come to be recognised as the true foundation of the technological
40 Proponents of mathematical purity were not blind for the applicability of

mathematics, but how to maintain the purity of mathematics when it in fact
is applied? According to Curry, it makes sense also to discuss the empirical
applicability of a mathematical theory, but this discussion is completely different
from the investigation of the truth of mathematical statements.
56
society which it is the destiny of our time to create (OEEC, 1961: 18).
Thus it became pointed out that not only mathematics, but also mathe-
matics education forms an integral part of technology and progress alike.
Modern mathematics education also celebrated the logical
architecture of mathematics for its own sake. Thus, it was claimed that
a mathematical curriculum could replicate the logical structures of
mathematics. The pure features of mathematics were presented as the
principal educational elements. This is clearly reflected in the way modern
mathematics education interprets educational meaning, as mentioned
previously. The meaning of a complex concept could be seen as a
composition of the meaning of its different elements, and in this way
the presentation of mathematics, as in particular it has been presented
in the works of Bourbaki, starting with the set-theoretical notions,
could be recapitulated in any educational context.
Modern mathematics education presents mathematics as an
indispensable tool for insight into nature and for the completion of all
forms of technological enterprises; and it celebrates mathematics in its
pure format. As a consequence, there is no need to address mathe-
matical rationality critically. According to modern mathematics education,
mathematics teachers should serve as ambassadors of mathematics. The
concern is how to provide learning environments, including textbooks
and curriculum structures, which open a main road for students into
mathematics and ensure that students come to appreciate mathematics.
Modern mathematics education has a strong impact on the formu-
lation of theories about teaching and learning. Let us look at an example:
the genetic epistemology as formulated by Jean Piaget. He assumed
that the logical structuring of mathematics, as developed by Bourbaki,
is in fact anticipated by the natural learning potential of the child.
Through this assumption, Piaget established a close connection between
the formulations of theories of learning mathematics and the purified
picture of mathematics. To Piaget the important notion in understanding
the growth of mathematical knowledge is reflective abstraction.41 Such
an abstraction represents the epistemic action of the child, for instance
when he or she considers a certain set of operations with objects and
then, by identifying some regularities in these operations, makes a
further step by recognising some of the unifying principles in these
41 See Beth and Piaget (1968); Piaget (1970).
57
INTERMEZZO
operations. In this case reflective abstractions deal with properties of

operations on objects (and not with properties of the objects). Reflective
abstractions, as described by Piaget, represent individual faculties by
means of which the child establishes the basis of certain operations.
These abstractions become a mode of constructing more abstract mathe-
matical notions, and in this way the child finds his or her way into
mathematics. Reflective abstractions are presented as a modus of cons-
tructing mathematical knowledge in its structural format. Nowhere in
Piagets works, I would argue, is the idea presented that mathematical
rationality may be disputable. Piaget genetic epistemology assumes a
(blind) trust in mathematical rationality. Such a trust characterises much
of the theorising that is associated with the modern mathematics
education.42
42 I see the so-called French tradition in mathematics education as an example
of modern mathematics education, where a trust in mathematical rationality

makes part of the notion of didactical transposition.
58
Chapter 5
A critical conception of mathematics
Mathematical rationality can be presented in a rosy picture if we pay
particular attention to the way mathematics facilitated the Scientific
Revolution and helped provide an insight into nature. More rosy colours
can be added when the mathematical resources for technological
development are portrayed. And finally a grandiose picture of mathe-
matics as the sovereign of science may emerge when we pay attention
to the intrinsic qualities of mathematics. This celebration represents
the modern conception of mathematics including an unquestioned
trust in its rationality.
The assumption of a close correlation between scientific develop-
ment and progress in general is part of the modern outlook. We
should not forget, however, that this outlook developed in connection
with the so-called great discoveries which also included some of human-
kinds most brutal colonisations. This was accompanied by the slave
trade and an explicit formulation of racism, later to be turned into a
scientifically based racism. Such events were part of the modern outlook,
too. So, one should not be surprised if the relationship between science
and progress is not quite so simple.
The notion of risk has been associated to nature. Humankind has
been surrounded by a hostile nature, and it has been our task to master
this environment. This idea of conquering nature was pointed out by
Francis Bacon, but today the idea of technology, by definition, as siding
with humanity against nature becomes questionable. Technology also
envelopes humankind in a techno-nature, which contains risk. The
creation of atomic energy may serve as an illustration of this. An atomic
power plant establishes an enormous resource of energy, but it also
includes new risks. There might not be any catastrophe, but there could.
In this sense, we can talk about a risk society, where the very production
of risk is part of technological development. As a consequence, the
supposed intrinsic connection between scientific development and
progress in general appears dubious.
59
CHAPTER 5
Risks are far from distributed in a uniform way around the globe.
We are not entering the risk society shoulder to shoulder. Here we do
not find equality and brotherhood. Some become much more exposed
to risks than others. The location of the English atomic power plant,
Sellafield, can serve as an example. We can also think of the risks asso-
ciated with different kinds of production. Thus, globalisation includes
the relocation of particularly risky and polluting types of production to
poorer parts of the world, where bad jobs are preferred to no jobs.
Mathematical rationality is an indispensable resource for all those
forms of technological construction, initiatives and decision-makings
which form our techno-nature. This indicates that a mathematical ration-
ality can also be a doubtful rationality. This, however, does not mean
that it is a rationality which brings about problematic conclusions by
necessity. It is a rationality which can provide important innovations, but
also bring about catastrophes. It is rationality without an essence. It is an
undetermined rationality. It is a critical rationality. It can go both ways.
I will try to outline an interpretation of mathematics different from
the modern conception of mathematics. I will present a critical con-
ception of mathematics by relating mathematics to discourse and power
and then discussing different dimensions of mathematics in action.
On this basis, I will try to formulate some preoccupations with respect
to mathematics and mathematics education.
5.1 Mathematics, discourse, and power

In breaking with the outlook of modernity, including the celebration
of science-guided progress, Michel Foucault opened the way for an
investigation of knowledge and power.43 He addressed the conceptions
of madness, control, the birth of the clinic, etc., and he demonstrated
that a scientific terminology might impress an order on the phenomena
that it is supposed to describe. The scientific language in use might not
represent a straightforward reflection of the reality which it is assumed
to be describing. Instead the assumed reality might reflect categories
incorporated in the language of description, which in this way turns
into a powerful tool of prescription and formatting. Power can be acted
43 See, for instance, Foucault (1989, 1994). See also Valero (2009).
60
A CRITICAL CONCEPTION OF MATHEMATICS
out through the applied language. In his investigations, Foucault, how-

ever, did not address the natural sciences in any detailed way, and certainly
he did not address mathematics. It might appear surprising, since the
science-technology conglomerate represents a profound knowledge-
power interaction; and mathematics provides an important site for
studying this.
Linguistic relativism, as formulated by Edward Sapir and Benjamin
Lee Whorf, suggests that language not only describes but also shapes
what is experienced. Language provides a grammar, not only for what to
say and not to say, but also for what to see and not to see. Linguistic
relativism relates to Immanuel Kants idea that what we experience is not
things as such. Instead our experiences are structured by our categories,
which are imposed on our experiences. According to Kant, such cate-
gories have an eternal permanence, but according to linguistic relativism,
categories are historically and culturally developed and integrated in
the basic grammar of language. The basic categories of our life-worlds
are manufactured. This brings language into a crucial position for under-
standing what we refer to as our reality. Language provides a formatting
of reality by imposing presumptions, categories, metaphysics, priorities,
understandings, as well as misunderstandings. And, returning to Foucault,
we can claim that also scientific discourse provides such a formatting
trough their particular regimes of truths.
Language also includes resources for acting. This aspect of language
was suggested by John L. Austin and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Any
utterance, statement, expression, formulation, question, etc. includes acts.
Thus, to make a promise is more that saying something. Promising
means doing something, and such an act can be discussed in terms of
its content, force and effects. The locutionary dimension of a promise
refers to the content of the statement; e.g. I could promise a friend to
visit him tomorrow. The illocutionary force refers to the element of
promising, which, in this example is the obligation entailed in me making
the promise. The perlocutionary effect refers to the consequences which
my promising might have: my friend might become a bit displeased by
the prospect of having me disturbing him tomorrow. The overall point
being that all these dimensions are involved in any form of speech acting.
If we combine the two ideas, i.e. that language is part of a
formatting of reality and that language includes actions, then the way
is opened for a performative interpretation of language and of the
61
CHAPTER 5
power-language interaction and in particular with respect to mathe-

matics. In many cases, mathematics has been described as a language.
For instance, a principal element of the purification of mathematics
was to present it as formal language that operated without any refer-
ences. It was presented as a transparent tool. Seeing mathematics as a
language can, however, be developed in quite a different direction
when we draw attention to the performative aspect of language. This
aspect can in fact be associated to all different forms of mathematics: in
engineering, economy, daily life, different cultural settings, research,
etc. I will try to illustrate in what sense we can talk about mathematics-
based performances and in this way explore the critical conception of
mathematics.44
5.2 Dimensions of mathematics in action

I shall try to be more specific about the performative aspects of mathe-
matics by exploring five aspects of mathematics in action: (1) Techno-
logical imagination, which refers to the possibility of exploring technical
possibilities. (2) Hypothetical reasoning, which addresses consequences of
not-yet-realised technological constructions and initiatives. (3) Legitimation
or justification, which refers to possible validations of technological
actions. (4) Realisation, which takes place when mathematics comes to
make part of reality, for instance through processes of design and
construction. (5) Dissolution of responsibility, which appears when ethical
issues related to the implemented action become eliminated.45 Thus in
the following I will refer to certain forms of applied mathematics.
44 For a discussion of linguistic relativism and speech acts as initiating a per-
formative interpretation of mathematics, see also Skovsmose (2009b).

45 I have presented aspects of mathematics in actions in different ways (see,
for instance, Skovsmose, 2005, 2009b), and I have not reached any conclusion
about which way provides the most adequate overview. In collaboration with
Ole Ravn (Christensen) and Keiko Yasukawa I have analysed examples of
mathematics in action, and we have explored different conceptual frameworks
for expression agency related to mathematics. See, for instance, Christensen,
Skovsmose and Yasukawa (2009). These shared efforts I am drawing on
in the following presentation. See also Baber (2010); Jablonka (2010); and
Ravn (2010).
62
Technological imagination
Technological development is based on imagination. This applies to
any form of design (be it of machines, artefacts, tools, schemes for
production, etc.) and decision-making (concerning management, pro-
motion, economy, etc). In all such areas we find mathematics-based
technological imagination.
As a paradigmatic example of such imagination, one can think of
the conceptualisation of the computer. The mathematical conception,
in terms of the Turing machine, was investigated in every detail. Even
the computational limits of the computer were clarified before the
construction of the first computer. The information and communication
technologies are deeply rooted in mathematics-based imagination. Thus,
powerful possibilities for cryptography were identified through mathe-
matical clarifications of number-theoretical properties. Such possibilities
could not be anticipated through a commonsense conception of crypto-
graphy. The mathematics resources brought the technological imagina-
tion into a new landscape. My general point is that many innovations
depend completely on mathematics. There is no commonsense-based
imagination equivalent to a mathematics-based imagination.
Let us consider an example from daily practices where a mathe-
matics-based technological imagination is brought into effect: price
fixing. Here we can take air-fares as an example. In this domain we see
very different schemes for pricing. Thus, airlines deliberately overbook.
However, the overbooking is carefully planned, and it is part of the
whole computational scheme for fixing the prices. This scheme cannot
be organised without bringing a mathematical model into effect. A lot
of experimental pricing has to be carried out before a price policy can
be decided upon. In fact the pricing becomes an ongoing process. The
identification of the degree to which a flight can be overbooked can be
based on the statistics of the numbers of no-shows for a particular
departure. (A no-show refers to a passenger with a valid ticket who
does not show up for the departure.) The cost of bumping a passenger
can be estimated. (Bumping a passenger means not allowing a passenger
with a valid ticket to board the plane, as the plane is already fully
booked.) The predictability of a passenger for a particular departure
being a no-show is naturally an important parameter in designing the
overbooking policy. This predictability can be improved when the
types of tickets are grouped in different types associated with different
63
CHAPTER 5
conditions, for instance considering the possibility of changing the ticket.

The whole overbooking policy can be experimented with mathe-
matically, until one has identified how to maximise profit.
Such experimentation and economic decision-making takes place
in all kinds of business, in marketing, in production planning, in big
companies, in small companies, in any economics sector of society.
A clear impression of the mathematics-based approach to pricing is
provided by leafing again through the Folha de So Paulo, for instance
considering the special offers on cell-phones. In many cases an item,
which can be thought of as a service, does not have a particular price
defined in a clear and unambiguous way. Instead there are schemes
of payment, which establish a set of economic transactions and obliga-
tions between the company and the buyer. This kind of pricing is an
expression of a mathematics-based technological imagination, and the
result of such imagination permeates our daily practices.
Hypothetical reasoning
Hypothetical reasoning is counterfactual. It is of the form, if p then q,
although p is not the case. This form of reasoning is essential in any
kind of technological enterprises as well as to our everyday decisions.
If we do p, what would be the consequence? It is important to
address this question before we in fact do p. In order to carry on with
any such hypothetical reasoning, mathematics may be brought into
effect. We can think of decisions like: Should we buy an energy-saving
fridge? Should we buy the expensive one? Or should we carry on with
the old one for another year? What decision to make? How to consider
the implications of each decision? One can try to do some calculations
of costs. The way of addressing such questions from daily life may
take the same form as does complex decision-making, the difference
being that in more complex cases, the hypothetical reasoning normally
presupposes the use of elaborate mathematical modelling.
The mathematics model comes to represent an imagined situation, p,
which could refer to any form of technological design, construction
or decision-making. The mathematical representation of the imagined
situation, p, we can refer to as Mp. Through investigation of Mp, one
tries to come to grips with the implications of realising p. However,
the implications that are identified by investigating Mp are not real-life
implications; they are just calculated implications. And it is far from
64
obvious what the relationship might be between calculated implications

and real-life consequences of completing the technological enterprise.
This observation applies to any economic initiative, to any form of
engineering construction. One carries out calculations based on a model
in order to estimate consequences of not-yet performed actions. For
instance, the stability of new aircraft design is carefully modelled and
estimated long before any real construction takes flight. In many cases
it appears that only through mathematics is it possible to investigate
details of a not-yet-realised construction.
Here we also find how risks can be produced. When we identify
implications of completing a certain construction and the identification
of implications is based on a mathematical model and not on any real
construction, there is always a risk of something being overlooked. In
fact very many aspects are by definition overlooked, as mathematics only
represents particular features of a situation. There is no direct similarity-
relationship between an imagined situation, p, and its mathematical
representation, Mp. And certainly when realised, the technological
construction may result in something which is very different from
what was modelled.
Mathematics-based hypothetical reasoning is formulated within
a certain logical space provided by mathematics, implying that only a
certain space of consequences can be grasped. The blind spot of a
mathematics-based hypothetical reasoning might be a tremendous blind
region. The emerging of the risk society is related to this region. Most
financial decision-making is based on a careful risk estimation, which in
turn has developed into an advanced mathematical discipline. But exactly
by being mathematical, risk estimations come to include rather extensive
blind regions which might turn into fertile ground for economic crises.
Legitimation or justification
The notions of legitimation and justification are different. According
to a classic perspective in philosophy, justification refers to a proper and
genuine logical support of a statement, of a decision, or of an action.
Naturally, what is proper and genuine and what is logical are not simple
to define, but the notion of justification includes an assumption that
some degree of logical honesty has been exercised. The notion of
legitimation does not include such an assumption. One can try to
legitimate an action by providing some argumentation, although without
65
CHAPTER 5
much logical significance. The point of providing a legitimation for an

action is to make the action appears as if it is justified. In general, a
legitimation is an as-if justification.
However, it might only be within an idealised philosophical frame-
work that it is possible to distinguish between legitimation and justifica-
tion. Mathematics might blur such a distinction. When a mathematical
model is brought into effect, it can serve as both a legitimation and a
justification. It has been pointed out that in the case of huge engineering
design processes, like bridge building, the mathematical modelling plays
an active part in investigating implications of completing a particular
form of the construction, for instance with respect to the impact on
the environment. However, in such cases the decision-making is often
based on one and only one model. In some cases we find that the
mathematical modelling serves the purpose first and foremost of
legitimating an already made decision. Through the mathematical model,
one provides a mathematical description of the construction in terms
of Mp, and one tries to identify implications of completing the bridge
construction by investigating Mp. The consequences identified through
the investigation of Mp need not, however, reflect any real consequences.
For instance, the mathematical model can be formulated in such a way
that the calculated environmental implications are seen to be within an
acceptable range. The difference between the model-based calculated
implications and the real-life ramifications, to be experienced when
the construction is completed, might be tremendous. But the model-
based calculations have served their legitimating purposes, as the
construction when completed cannot be moved or removed.
In many cases detailed mathematics-based analyses cannot be
substituted by any form of analyses. Mathematics simply provides a
space for justification (as well as of legalisation) which is unique. Thus,
a justification for a specific design of an aircraft might have no substitute
in a commonsense-based argumentation about stability. As mathematics
might bring about a unique space for technological imagination, a
mathematics-based technological imagination might also bring us into
a unique space for legitimation and justification.
Realisation
A mathematical model can become part of our environment. This is
the most direct exemplification of the remark I made previously about
66
speech acts and discourse. A language is not simply a descriptive tool:

it also includes performances. Our life-world is formed through cate-
gories and discourses many of which emerge through mathematics in
action.
Technology is not something additional which we can put aside,
as if it were a simple tool, like a hammer. We live in a technologically
structured environment, a techno-nature. Our life-world is situated in
this techno-nature, and we cannot even imagine what it would mean to
eliminate technology from our environment. Just try to do the subtrac-
tion piece by piece. We could start by removing the computer, the
coffee machine, the fridge, the TV set, the phone. Then we continue by
removing medicine, newspapers, houses, cars, bridges, streets, shoes. We
have no idea about the kind of life-world into which such a continued
subtraction would bring us. In this sense our life-world is submerged
in techno-nature.
Mathematics is an integral part of both techno-nature and life-
world. Thus all the things referred to: coffee machine, fridge, TV set,
phone, medicine, newspapers, houses, cars, bridges, streets, shoes are
produced through processes packed with mathematics. But not only
the objects which make part of our techno-nature are formatted through
mathematics, so are many practices. Mathematics establishes routines.
The travel business can again serve as an example. When I want to buy a
ticket, the assistant at the travel agency can easily provide information
about prices and schedules. The whole computational survey of infor-
mation is part of the routines of the agency. Furthermore, much of
the information is available on the Internet, which makes it possible to
organise the booking from home. In all such cases the procedures are
determined through computerised algorithms.
Another domain where mathematics-based routines have been
established is medicine. Here many routines of making diagnosis are
established with reference to the numerical definition of what it is to be
in normal health. The diagnosis and decisions about which treatment
to consider adequate depends on the deviation from the norm according
to certain parameters (concerning the level of cholesterol and blood
pressure, for instance). Decision-making can be routinised, treatment can
be routinised, and the extension of such routinisation can ensure effici-
ency. At the same time the procedures include new risks, as, being
defined through a mathematics-based norm setting, they need not
apply adequately in all situations.
67
CHAPTER 5
Dissolution of responsibility
Mathematics-based action may include an dissolution of responsibility.
Let us again consider the example with the travel agency. The assistant
can tell the customer the price of the ticket and whether tickets are
available on a certain day or not. The assistant cannot provide a ticket if
they are sold out. Even if the costumer might be able to demonstrate
that the travel is of extreme importance, the assistant cannot do anything.
The assistant is in no way responsible for what the computer states.
Nor is he or she responsible for the price of the ticket, the conditions of
payment, or for anything that transpires on account of algorithmically
defined procedures.
One could ask who is responsible for the actions exercised through
a computer? Somehow responsibility seems to evaporate. It cannot
be the assistant using the model who is responsible. Nor can it be the
model itself. Mathematics cannot be responsible, even when it is brought
in action. But might we not say, at least, that a certain way of thinking
is responsible? Could the people who constructed the model be res-
ponsible? Are the responsible ones those who have ordered the model?
My point is that actions based on mathematics easily appear to be
conducted in an ethical vacuum. Actions we normally associated with an
acting subject. However, mathematics in action appears to be operating
without such a subject. And when the acting subject disappears, the
notion of responsibility seems to be blowing tin the wind. Mathematics-
based actions may appear as the only actions relevant in the situation.
They might appear to be determined by some objective authority as
they represent the necessity provided by mathematics. In this way the
elimination of responsibility might be part of mathematical perfor-
mances, which in turn makes part of a knowledge-power dynamics.
5.3 Wonders, horrors, and reflections

Mathematics in action can take many different forms. Wonders can be
associated with mathematics in action, and medical research seems to
provide many examples of this. In fact it is very difficult to think of any
medical research without mathematics playing an integral part. It is
also possible to provide examples of horrors facilitated by mathematics.
68
Military enterprises cannot be carried out without mathematics. Eco-

nomic restructurings resulting in the firing of workers become realised
through mathematics. One could obviously retort that it is unfair
simply to associate mathematics with horrors by referring to military
application, as one could argue that a military is necessary for national
security. One could also claim that firing people is part of the improve-
ment of production efficiency, which is necessary for the general
welfare.
This brings us to the observation that the wonder-horror dichotomy
with respect to mathematics in action may not actually be relevant to
apply. It might be better to acknowledge that it is very difficult to
establish any uniform scheme for evaluating mathematics in action. Like
other forms of action, mathematics in action can have very many different
implications, which could be judged in different ways depending on
perceptive and context. This brings us to the critical conception of
mathematics. Mathematics represents a rationality which could serve any
purpose. Mathematics does not contain any essence, which provides
mathematics-based actions with any particular qualities. Mathematics in
action could come to serve any interests. As a consequence, mathematics
in action is in need of reflections. Such reflections must be conducted
with reference to all the particularities of the action including its context.
If one applies a broad notion of ethics, one could also talk about an
ethical demand associated to the critical conception of mathematics.
Like those adhering to the modern conception of mathematics, so
also advocates of the critical conception acknowledge that mathematics
operates within a wide range of scientific disciplines. However, from
a critical perspective, there is no automatic celebration of the role of
mathematics within these disciplines. As any language, mathematics
might bring along a range of metaphysical assumptions and, for instance,
facilitate a mechanical outlook. In this way a mathematical discourses
may provide an formatting of scientific discourses that need to be
addressed critically.
The modern conception of mathematics appears to dispense with
carrying out reflections with respect to technology, due to the overall
confidence that when mathematics is applied, progress will be ensured.
But the discussion of mathematics in action brings about a different con-
clusion. Mathematics is an integral part of different ways of formatting
our environment, our techno-nature, but this formatting does not
69
CHAPTER 5
ensure any automatic improvement. Technology has an impact on all

spheres of daily life. Technology makes changes, but techno-nature does
not develop according to any standards of progress, nor is there any-
thing natural about this growth.
The modern conception of mathematics considers mathematics
pure rationality. This means that mathematics is seen as a rationality
which can be a resource of reflection. It can be seen as a sublime format
of critical thinking. However, studies of mathematics in action call
attention to the need for addressing mathematical rationality critically.
This rationality cannot be related to purity. Mathematics in action means
action, and as any other form of action, it requires reflection. Actions can
be dangerous, courageous, risky, harmless, benevolent, praiseworthy,
etc. And so can mathematics-based actions. Critical reflection is needed,
and the ethical demand comes to operate as an overall challenge with
respect to mathematics.
70
Chapter 6
Reflection
Todays societies include many processes, which establish a tremendous
amount of feedback on society. As an illustration, one can think of the
car industry. It has the explicit aim of producing cars, selling cars, and
making this a profitable business. The car industry may experience
prosperous periods; or it could go into recession. Such considerations
refer to the explicit dimension of car production. However, there is also an
implicit dimension of this production. It needs resources, and this brings
about a competition in getting access to resources. Cars need petrol, and
this may provoke international conflicts related to the problem of con-
trolling access to oil. One can also think of pollution as an example of
an implicit production conducted by the car industry, and of the entire
network of motor roads, including the accidents that take place, as being
part of the implicit production of the car industry. The point is that the
implicit production makes up a part of the whole scheme of production.
It might, however, be a simplification to try to separate between
explicit and implicit production. We have to consider the full scope
of intended and unintended aspects of the production, when we want
to reflect on the car industry. This applies to any form of production, of
any form of enterprise of economic, organisational, political, or techno-
logical format. We have to reflect on the full scope of any form of action
including its feed-back on society. This brings us to a broad notion of
reflection, which I also find important with respect to mathematics in
action. In fact mathematics in action is part of these very many different
processes including intended as well as unintended implications. The
ethical demand, as referred to in the previous chapter, signifies the need
for reflection with respect to all kinds of social processes, and not
least those where mathematics in actions makes part.
Reflections have to do with judgement of actions. (One can also
reflect on, say, descriptions, statements, theories, etc., but here I con-
centrate on actions.) Reflections can be related to profound ethical
considerations with respect to actions and be seen as a philosophical
concept. However, I also see reflection as an everyday notion of giving
71
CHAPTER 6
thought to actions. Everyday life includes many decisions to be taken

and actions to be carried out. It is filled with reflections.
Reflection is an important educational notion. All kind of teaching-
learning issues can be addressed through reflections. The students could
consider what they are supposed to be doing in the classroom: Does it
make sense what the teacher is talking about? What would happen if
we did not do our homework? If the teacher asks us to form groups,
will I get into the same group as Peter? Will I be bullied during the
next break? The teacher will consider how things are working out: Are
the students active? Will Michael again start making trouble? Will the
next break be long enough for me to prepare the following lesson?
I will try to operate with a notion of reflection that includes very
many different aspects. (Thus I see the notion of reflection that grows out
of Piagets contribution to modern mathematics education as extreme
limited.) I want to establish a comprehensive social and political dimen-
sions of reflection; dimensions that I tried to illustrate with reference
to the car industry. I will view reflection as an expression of an ethical
concern as well as being an everyday activity. With this in mind, I will
discuss reflections with respect to the leaning of mathematics. I will be
fully aware that we might have to do with a network of different notions
and ideas. Reflection might escape any attempts to be summed up by
a clarifying definition, but I find the notion important in order to
formulate some preoccupations of critical mathematics education. And
better now to get to some examples. Through these I will try to illustrate
what it could mean to reflect on mathematics, reflect with mathematics,
and reflect through mathematical inquiries.
6.1 Reflections on mathematics

Reflections can concern actions that are carried out with reference to
mathematics. As an example I refer to the project Terrible Small
Numbers, which addresses the notion of risk.46 There are naturally
46 The example was developed in collaboration with Helle Alr, Morten

Blomhj, Henning Bdtkjer and Mikael Sknstrm and was described in Alr
and Skovsmose (2002). I have also summarised the example in Skovsmose
(2006a) with a special emphasis on the notion of reflection. See also Skovsmose
(2007b).
72
REFLECTION
very many different ways to contextualise risks, and in the project the
topic was salmonella-infected eggs. This was due to the fact that in
Denmark at that time, there had been much debate about salmonella
infection. A number of people had become seriously ill, and one person
had died.
We have tried out the project with different groups of students
(between 12 and 15 years of age). Here, I only give a general description
of the project. One overall idea was to make it possible for the students
to experience a situation where mathematics was brought into action and
to reflect on such actions. We tried to create a situation where students
came to face questions like: Can we trust information obtained from
samples in order to draw conclusions about the whole population?
What does it mean to make decisions based on figures and numbers?
As part of the planning of the project we discussed how to illustrate
eggs. The suggestion from Henning Bdtkjer, one of the participating
teachers, was that eggs could take the form of empty film cases. Such
black cases could easily be opened and checked. When the project
started a whole population of eggs was brought into the classroom in
a trolley. It had been easy to collect empty film cases from photo shops
(but maybe not so easy any longer due to the advent of digital photo-
graphy). The first population contained 500 eggs, of which 50 were
infected by salmonella. This was known to every student in the class-
room. The 450 eggs contained a healthy yolk, in the form of a yellow
piece of plastic, while the remaining 50 contained a blue piece of
plastic, indicating salmonella infection.
The students worked in groups, and their first task was to select a
sample of 10 eggs each from the trolley. This was exactly what an egg tray
from the super market normally holds. The students then checked the
eggs of the sample and made a note of the number of salmonella infected
eggs. Then they collected a new sample, and in this way they collected
a small amount of empirical material about how many salmonella
infected eggs were included in a sample. Many students expected one egg
out of the sample of 10 to be infected by salmonella. What they realised,
however, was that this was far from always the case. They became
aware of the fact that a sample does far from always reveal the truth
about the population from which it is drawn. When the information was
put together, it revealed that less than half of the samples contained
one and only one salmonella-infected egg. The students tried to find
73
CHAPTER 6
explanations for this observation. Could it be that the eggs in the trolley
were not mixed up well enough? Would it be correct to imply that if
one had a perfectly good mix, then a sample would contain one and
only one salmonella-infected egg? Or are samples rather unreliable
messengers regarding properties of the whole population from which
they are drawn?
Such considerations naturally point towards a more profound
problem. In almost all real-life situations, we know nothing about the
whole population except what is revealed through samples. This applies
to any form of quality control of a product. In this way the project
opened up to a broader discussion of the reliability of samples and of
statistics and of information provided by numbers. At the same time it
seems clear that information via samples cannot possibly be substituted
by other more reliably sources of information. So we have to operate
in the best possible ways with this kind of (more or less reliable)
information.
The discussion of reliability served as a first step in addressing
mathematics in action. The next step was to bring the students into a
situation where they had to make a decision based on numbers. In this
part of the project, two trolleys were brought into the classroom. Each
trolley contained a collection of eggs: Eggs from Greece; and eggs
from Spain. Each group of students were asked to think of them-
selves as an egg-import company, and they had to make a decision as
to which country, Greece or Spain, should provide the imported eggs.
Eggs from both countries were infected by salmonella, but to different
degrees. The degree of the infection was not known by the students,
nor by the teacher as he had randomly added some infected eggs to
each trolley.
The economic conditions were explained to the students. The prices
of the Greek and the Spanish eggs were the same, the equivalent of
0.50 Danish Kroner per egg. They could also expect to sell the two
types of eggs for the same price, namely 1.00 DKr per egg. The
salmonella control was not cheap. It cost 10.00 DKr to have one egg
checked for salmonella. Furthermore eggs opened in the salmonella
control were destroyed. They could not be sold later on, meaning that a
careful check of each an every imported egg would not leave any eggs
for selling. The students were asked to provide a procedure for decision-
making and to make a budget of the whole business, including the
74
REFLECTION
amount of eggs they were ready to import and the amount they would
inspect. In other words, they were asked to outline a procedure for
decision-making, and in this way they came to experience mathematics
in action.
The students faced a dilemma. One the one hand, they could make
a careful and elaborate statistical investigation in order to make sure
that they did in fact import the eggs of the best quality, but the more
elaborate they made their decision procedure, the less profitable business
they were doing. On the other hand, they could try to reduce the cost of
salmonella sampling, but that would make their decisions more tentative.
This dilemma is fundamental to almost any kind of mathematics-based
decision making. Any kind of quality control is a costly affair, so the
more well-justified decisions one wants to make, the less profitable
business one seems likely to be doing. This could bring about a more
general discussion of what it could mean to make responsible decisions
when facing such a dilemma.
I find that the issues of reliability and responsibility are of general
significance for reflecting on mathematics in action. They help to
introduce an ethical perspective on mathematics in action.
Reflections could concern all the mentioned aspects of mathe-
matics in action. Thus, one could reflect on the nature of a mathematics-
resourced technological imagination with respect to particular issues.
As illustrated previously, such an imagination could bring about new
business principles and new schemes for calculating prices and conditions
for payment. It could bring about actions that could not be concept-
tualised by a commonsense-based imagination. But what is the strength
and weakness of building an imagination on mathematical sources? One
could reflect on the hypothetical reasoning that could be performed
with respect to mathematical modelling. Some advantages might be
associated with a mathematical X-raying of a situation, but there are
also many hazards. One can reflect on the format of legitimisation
or justification for certain actions and decisions that are made with
reference to mathematics. One can consider what might be established
or realised though mathematics. And one could consider to what extent
an illusion of objectivity brings about a dissolution of responsibility.
All aspects of mathematics in action are important to address through
reflections. This applies to all the different forms of mathematics one
may have in mind, including all ethnomathematical variations.
75
CHAPTER 6
6.2 Reflections with mathematics
Although sometimes dubious, mathematical rationality is rationality. Even

though there are many reasons to reflect on mathematics, reflecting
with mathematics is still a crucial activity.
Let us again consider the example of the mathematical X-raying
of a football match. It might be that such an X-raying helps to identify
some of the strong features of a teams performance as well as things
that could be improved. It is also clear that a mathematical X-raying
leaves out very many aspects of what has taken place. The X-raying
leaves out the body and the flesh of the match. This observation applies
not only the mathematical representation of a soccer match, but to
any form of mathematical X-raying. Still it can be extremely useful.
As part of the project City Planning, as referred to previously, it
was clarified that only 53% of the water that was delivered into the
water supply system of the city Rio Claro, a city in the interior of the
So Paulo State, was in fact registered by the customers.47 Information
about the disappearance of water could be expressed verbally, but putting
things in numbers makes it possible to reflect in a more systematic
way on the efficiency of the water supply system. One could consider,
first, if the information is correct. How is the amount of delivered as
well as received water in fact calculated? Do some costumers not figure
in the system of measuring? One can also start addressing the possibility
of locating the problem. Are there some ways of tapping water from
the system without being measured? Is the water-supply system leaking?
Are there ways of estimating the water supply for specific neighbour-
hoods? Could the disappearance of the water be related to the amount
of time the water supply system has been in service, which certainly
might vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood? One could also start
considering the possible improvement of the water supply system?
What could be the maximum percentage of delivered water that could
possibly be registered by the customers (assuming that 100% would
be a practical impossibility)? What is the situation in other cities? With
an estimation of the optimal percentage, one could start gauging the
yearly gain of having the 53%-system repaired. Such a gain could in
turn be compared to the cost of repairing the system.
47 See Biotto Filho (2008).
76
REFLECTION
All such reflections can be carried out, and Denival Biotto Filhos
main conclusion based on the project City Planning is that mathematics
is an important resource for formulating, strengthening and specifying
a broad variety of socio-political and economic reflections. It is possible
to reflect with mathematics, and in many cases mathematics is a
resource for strengthening reflections.
A similar conclusion can be drawn from the Energy project
referred to in the first chapter. Through this project it became possible
to formulate some issues about the use of energy in a more specific
way. The description of the transformation processes from barley to meat
through input-output calculations made it possible to grasp in a more
specific way the energy costs connected to such transformations. This
does not mean that the particular energy costs were estimated correctly,
but the idea that it is possible to associate energy costs to different
transformations is an import insight. Such a cost could be expressed
verbally, but mathematics gives the formulations a different format.
Naturally, this format need not represent any truth, and an important
element of the energy project was to compare the transformation figures
identified by the students with already established research results.
Through such comparisons, the students came to consider what uncer-
tainties could be connected to their procedures; furthermore they got
the opportunity to consider what kind of uncertainties might be included
in agricultural research in general.
6.3 Reflections through mathematical inquiries
The different learning milieus, as presented in Figure 7, provide different

possibilities for reflection. While the exercise paradigm imposes many
prescriptions for what to do and how to do it, landscapes of investiga-
tion make spaces for inquiries. Naturally, one can make many reflections
in relation to doing exercises: Are the result calculated correctly? Did
I do the right exercise? Did I use the algorithm correctly? etc. Such
reflections are conducted within the limited exercises-generated space.
However, inquiries cannot be prescribed in detail. Instead inquiries pre-
suppose a degree of analytical freedom, and this encourages reflection
of very many forms.
77
CHAPTER 6
Let us consider an example, referred to previously, related to

learning milieus of type 2. To approach a mathematical investigation
of the graphs of functions of the format
( ax 2 + bc + c )
2
F(x ) =
( dx 2 + ex + f )
2
needs reflections. Could one try to clarify the features of the graphs in
terms of the patterns of asymptotes? How to relate the different patterns
to different combinations of values of the parameters? Would it be
easier to express the asymptotic pattern if the functions are described
in the following way:
( ax + b )( cx + d )
F(x ) =
( ex + f )( gx + h )
Or should one start with:
( x a )( x b )
F(x ) =
( x c )( x d )
In fact it seems impossible to separate mathematical inquiries and

mathematical reflection.
The project Caramel Boxes will illustrate the kind of incentive
for reflections that a learning milieu of type 4 could provide. Such a
milieu includes references to non-mathematical issues, and this provides
a broadening of the scope of reflections.48 The project concentrated
on the design of boxes intended to contain different amounts of
caramels. The project, therefore, called for exploring the relationship
between the length factor, l, the area factor, a, and the volume factor,
v, for different boxes of the same proportion. The principal properties
of this relationship were not explicated to the students, but they could be
discovered through working with the design of the boxes. The students
were invited to design a caramel box that could contain twice the amount
of caramels of an already given box. Would one need a double-sized
48 The project Caramel Boxes is described in Alr and Skovsmose (2002). The
short presentation here is based on the summary of the project in Skovsmose
(2006a).
78
REFLECTION
sheet of paper in order to construct such a box? And what would a

double-sized sheet in fact mean? What would happen if one constructed
a new box where the length of all sides are twice the length of the
sides of the original box? As part of the project the students had the
possibility to reach the insight that if the length factor for two pro-
portional boxes were l, then the area factor a would be l 2, and the volume
factor v would be l 3.
The project invited students to reflect on mathematical properties,
and to address different aspects of proportional reasoning. In the project
we find references to caramels and to boxes although in a semi-real
setting, and such references provide other possibilities for reflection.
Box design is part of a huge industry, and this could be addressed from
an ecological perspective. Boxes could be different shapes, and one could
consider the shape of the box in relation to the amount of material used
and its volume. Based on such observations one could address
questions of use of resources in a more profound way.
Let us return to the Energy project, illustrating a learning milieu
of type 6. This project provided a broad basis for reflecting on consump-
tion of energy, but it also illustrates the intimate connection between
inquiry and reflection. One of the issues of the project was to calculate the
front area of a cyclist. But how to do this? Each of the students had
to fix a square made of cardboard the size of 1 dm2 with two safety pins
on the pullover, before riding towards the camera. A picture was taken,
and, as indicated by Figure 9, the square of 1 dm2 was easy to identify.
The students then squared the whole picture, and from that they
could make a good estimation of the front area. The estimation of this
Figure 9. Calculating the front area of a cyclist.
79
CHAPTER 6
area, a, could then be used for calculating the bike resistance, r,

through the following formula:
r = c1av2 + c2
where r refers to the bike resistance, a to the front area of the cyclist, v
to the velocity, while c1 and c2 are two constants that depends of the
type of the bike (being a normal bike, a sports bike or a racer). The bike
resistance, r, makes part of other formulas through which the use of
energy through the trip on the bike can be calculated.49
That the different learning milieus provide different possibilities
or reflections has much to do with the patterns of communication
relating to the different milieus. In Dialogue and Learning in Mathematics
Education, Helle Alr and I have discussed the relationship between
communication and inquiry. We find that processes of inquiry are closely
linked to dialogic process.50 In general we find that landscapes of investi-
gation invite for dialogues, although there is certainly no guarantee that
dialogue will in fact arise. In particular, we find that reflections need
dialogue. Based on our observations with respect to the Caramel Boxes
project, we found that dialogue, including challenging questions, is
important in order to facilitate and to provoke reflection. Reflection may
be an expression of interaction more than an of individual processes.
We do not claim that personal reflections do not exist; but in order to
address profound questions concerning mathematical insight and
mathematics in action, dialogue appears relevant.
49For more detailed calculations, see Skovsmose (1994).

50The notions are brought together through an Inquiry Co-operation Model.
For discussions of communication and dialogue see also Alr and Johnsen-
Hines (2010); and Planas and Civil (2010).
80
Chapter 7
Mathemacy in a globalised and
ghettoised world
Globalisation is a popular term, although globalisation is far from a
popular phenomenon. Globalisation can refer to a new global order of
domination and exploitation. It can refer to a network of production
lines, running from poor locations with cheap labour force where pro-
ducts are fabricated onto affluent areas where the products are delivered
and consumed. Processes of globalisation mean both inclusion (of
some groups) and exclusion (of other groups). Therefore, I consider
ghettoising as being part of globalisation.
The notion of globalisation is sometimes interpreted in terms of a
growing concern for each other based on new forms of communication.
News is spread immediately, and we become aware of problems all over
the world. It is possible, through the internet, to communicate obser-
vations and opinions in ways which make it impossible for governments
with dogmatic or dictatorial aspirations to maintain control of what
people know and do not know. The universal stream of information
makes a variety of issues universal. This not only applies to global
conflicts, but also to sports events and entertainment.
A strong economic currency runs beneath all such events, and
I let globalisation (always including ghettoising) refer to deeper socio-
economic and cultural trends, implying that it is not a simple question
of voting against globalisation. The processes of globalisation are not
determined by those parliamentary and governmental forums where
political decisions are taken. Processes of globalisation are powerful, but
they are not governed by any political institutions. They operate with a
different logic and represent an interplay between technological develop-
ment and economic, political and military interests.
Although I see globalisation as a determining process, meaning that
other parameters of socio-political development easily become overruled
by the dynamics of globalisation, I do not see it as a predetermined
81
CHAPTER 7
process. It does not operate like an engine put on rails. Instead globalisa-
tion includes a set of propensities, which could work out and be
reworked in very different forms. There are many trends, some even
contradictory, involved in processes of globalisation. The complexity
might be such that it is impossible to grasp its dynamics through any
available theoretical concepts. A complexity which extensively surpasses
the conceptual constructs and theoretical insights of social theorising,
I refer to as a happening.51 People experiencing a happening do not have
the opportunity to grasp and to predict what is going to take place. The
possible logic of what is taking place turns out to be far more complex
than a logic established through theoretical constructs is able to grasp.
In this sense I consider globalisation a world-wide happening.
7.1 Mathematics education world-wide

The informational economy has been analysed as encompassing know-
ledge and information as particular resources. According to classic eco-
nomic theory, productivity is a function of two variables: work and capital.
But according to the basic assumptions of informational economy,
knowledge in its very many forms has become a principal resource of
value. The overall debate on informational economy, however, does not
pay much attention to the different types of knowledge. Obviously
there are differences between the productivity and the value that can be
extracted from, say, knowledge of football and knowledge of mathe-
matics. Different forms of knowledge may play different economic roles.,
and mathematics in action plays a significant role in the informational
economy.
Schooling may provide access to the funds of knowledge which
is important for the further development and maintenance of the
machinery of globalisation and its associated economy. This observa-
tion brings us directly to mathematics education and to the notion of
mathemacy seen as a competence in handling mathematical techniques.52
51 For a discussion of happening with respect to social theorising, see
Skovsmose (2005).
52 For a discussion of mathematics education and globalisation see Ernest
(2009).
82
MATHEMACY IN A GLOBALISED AND GHETTOISED WORLD
Thus mathemacy can be discussed in terms of abilities in understanding

and operating with mathematical notions, algorithms and procedures;
it can be discussed in terms of abilities in applying all such notions,
algorithms and procedures in a variety of situations; and it can be
discussed in terms of abilities in reflecting on all then applications.
Mathematics education can be interpreted as a universal preparation
by which young people acquire a certain competencies, maybe including
a prescription readiness, relevant for their further career opportunities
and for the effectiveness of a huge variety of practices. Thus mathe-
matics education can be seen as a universal form of socialising students
into certain perspectives, discourses and techniques which are imperative
for the present technological and economic framework. Thus mathe-
matics education can develop the functional dimensions of a mathemacy.
However, mathemacy may include other dimensions as well.
I usually prefer to indicate the meaning of such a more radical inter-
pretation of mathemacy by relating it to the notion of literacy as des-
cribed by Paulo Freire.53 Literacy not only refers to reading and writing
competencies in the regular sense of the words. It refers to much more,
and in order to illustrate this one can take text to be interpreted in a
wide-screen hermeneutic format as referring to any form of life situa-
tion. This way a text becomes a life-world. This provides a new set of
meanings to the notions of reading and writing. Thus, one could inter-
pret reading as the actions through which one tries to grasp social,
political, cultural, economic features of ones life-world, and one could
interpret writing as the active way of changing this world. One could
interpret mathemacy along the same lines. This way mathemacy can be
seen as a way of reading the world in terms of numbers and figures,
and of writing it as being open to change.54
Different groups of students in different contexts might experience
the learning of mathematics in very different ways. There are Ntabesengs
and Pieters all around the world, and we have to consider very many
different situations when we try to understand what a mathemacy,
including its radical dimensions, could mean.
53 See Freire (1972, 1974).

54 For an interpretation of mathematical literacy along these lines, see Gutstein
(2006, 2008, 2009). See also Jablonka (2003) for a presentation of different
notions of mathematical literacy, and Chronaki for an exploration of
mathemacy.
83
CHAPTER 7
In order to be more specific I will discuss mathemacy with

reference to different types of practices, and consider what mathemacy
might mean with respect to these. I will consider practises of construction.
Here I refer to the construction and further refinement of all forms of
technologies which draw on mathematical resources. We can think
of a practice of construction as a practice of expertise. I will consider
mathemacy with reference to practices of operation, that is, mathematics-
based work procedures as experienced by laboratory assistants, bank
accountants, assistants at a travel agency, etc. Naturally, mathematics need
not be explicit in such practices. I consider mathemacy with reference
to practices of consumption, meaning the buying or receiving of whatever
kind of goods we can think of in relation to shopping, watching TV,
travelling, etc. I will also consider mathematics education with reference
to the practises of the marginalised referring to situations of those very
many people that are marginalised by the globalised economic order.
It should be emphasised that in talking about these different
practices, I do not have any classification in mind. I am merely talking
about different types of practices, and a person could participate in
different practices depending on the situation. Naturally, discussing these
four different types of practices cannot substitute a more specific
approach with respect to particular situations. Yet the following dis-
cussion might give some indication of what mathemacy might mean
with respect to mathematics education. I start with the last group of
practices.55
7.2 Practices of marginalised

The notion of the marginalised does not suggest that we are dealing
with a minority group. Processes of ghettoising are so powerful that
they set life conditions for huge groups of people the world around.
These processes might emerge in many ways: from previous patterns of
colonisation, from present patterns of exploitation, from a neoliberal
capitalism, etc.
Mathematics makes up part of the practices of the marginalised in
many different ways. One could consider the mathematics of street
55 See also Skovsmose (2007c).
84
sellers, as have been explored by Madalena Santos and Joo Filipe Matos;
the mathematics of street children as discussed by Monica Mesquita; the
mathematics of sugar cane farmers as investigated by Guida Abreu; and
the mathematics of agriculture as presented by Paulus Gerdes.56 Many
of the ethnomathematical studies have excavated the mathematics of
practices of marginalised group``s. In my interpretation such practices
are all examples of mathematics in action, which in turn can have all
different kind of qualities.
How to think of mathematics education for children from margin-
alised groups? One immediate concern could be for the education to
be related to the background of the children. This implies, for instance,
that the children of the families engaged in the farm work, as described
by Gerdes, should be offered a mathematics education which relates
to the mathematics of farming. The idea is that mathematics education
should be based on the mathematics that makes up part of the cultural
practices with which the children are familiar. There are many different
examples that illustrate how mathematics education could be rooted in
such cultural practices.
I find it important to recognise that mathematics operates in very
different cultural settings, and it is crucial that a mathematics education
acknowledge this diversity. However, let me comment on some of the
limitations of the idea that a mathematics education should relate first
of all to the cultural background of the group of students in question.
I became aware of such limitations when working in a South African
context. Some of the apartheid rhetoric included an appreciation of
cultural differences. Thus, one might encounter a rationale such as this:
The Zulu culture is fascinating, just think of the cultural values expressed
through dancing, rhythm, colours, house building, etc.; such cultural
values have to be preserved. However, assuming that a mathematics
education for the post-apartheid era had to ensure that the curriculum
for Zulu-students be embedded in Zulu-cultural traditions appeared
problematic. An important idea of the post-apartheid education was to
eliminate limitations that had been imposed on black people. In
particular it became important to provide equal opportunities for all.
Instead of trying to organise a mathematics education with a particular
56 See, Santos and Matos (2002); Mesquita (2004); Abreu (1993); Gerdes (2008);
and Skovsmose and Penteado (in print).
85
CHAPTER 7
reference to the background of students, I found it important to

consider their foregrounds.
The same observation has presented itself to me in other situations.
In Barcelona there are many immigrant groups, and some neighbour-
hoods take the form of immigrant favelas. What was referred to as a
critical mathematics education programme was developed for children
from such a neighbourhood. The content of this critical curriculum
was formulated with a particular reference to the everyday-life situa-
tions known to the children. Every activity was carefully contextualised.
There was sufficient time to spend on each topic. Considering the over-
all approach one might assume to be looking at an example of critical
mathematics education. But a direct implication of this critical mathe-
matics education programme was that none of the children from this
neighbourhood had the opportunity to get into further education.
Instead, due to the educational programme, the children became stuck
in their situation.57
For me there is no simple step to be taking from recognising the
mathematics that may be ingrained in a particular cultural setting and the
mathematics education that could appear meaningful to the students from
that grouping. This observation particularly applies when we consider
groups that, one way of another, can be characterised as marginalised.
We have to consider mathematics education with reference to their
foreground and certainly not only with reference to their background.
I find it important to consider what would provide such students with
more opportunities. One has to consider the empowerment that is estab-
lished when marginalised students come to master competencies and
techniques important for accessing further education.
This brings us to more radical dimensions of mathemacy. One
could think of mathemacy in terms of response-ability. This reading of
responsibility has been suggested to me by Bill Atweh.58 This turns the
discussion of mathemacy into a question of how to make students able
to respond to different challenges in different situations. A crucial concern
of critical mathematics educations is how to ensure social response-
ability for marginalised groups of students. Educational approaches
57 The information about this educational programme in Barcelona has been

provided to me by Nria Gorgori and Nria Planas.
58 See also Atweh (2007, 2009).
86
that make up part of the Movimento Sem Terra (the landless peoples
movement in Brazil) exemplify what this could mean.59 However, there
are no general guidelines to be expected for such educational approaches.
Instead one has carefully to consider the particular situation of the
students in question, when one try to explore mathemacy in terms
of response-ability.
7.3 Practices of consumption

Experts statements are expressed each and every day on television
and in newspapers. Let us just recall some of the advertisements from
Folha de So Paulo. At the front page Hyundai announces the possibility of
buying a car interest-free. On the following pages we find advertisements
for travel agencies in which the prices in huge print appear to be very
small (only the amounts given are not single payments but must be paid
as each of ten instalments). There are special offers from Dell; again the
rate of interest is announced to be 0%, while the instalments have to be
paid twelve times. And so it goes throughout the whole newspaper.
Such advertisements are addressed to somebody, to whom I will
refer as a consumer. Mathematics education also means preparation for
consuming, and one can consider what social response-ability might
mean in this situation. Consumers will face an overwhelming amount
of goods (which certainly also include an overwhelming amount of
bads). We can think of any kind of product: TV set, tooth brush, coffee
machine, holyday trip, or a special offer on a cell phone. It could also
be goods in an indirect sense, as when one as a citizen is met with
numbers and figures in political advertisement, or when newspapers
provide poll results regarding the candidates in an election. As citizens we
are exposed to actions, initiatives, advertisings, designs, and decisions
representing mathematics in action. 60 As citizens we are going to
respond to all such forms of mathematics in action, and one possibility
is that we do so through an almost blind acceptance.
59 See, for instance, Knijnik (2009).

60 A careful study of an example of such information is presented by Greer
(2008), who investigates how the discounting of Iraqi deaths are addressed in
public discourses.
87
CHAPTER 7
Thus a functional consumption, understood as a preparation for

(blind) consumption, can be supported through the development of the
functional aspects of mathemacy. This means, for instance, that people
become able to manage all kinds of everyday economic transactions: with
respect to buying and selling, receiving salaries, paying taxes, etc. If we
consider consumption in broader terms as also referring to the reception
and use of information expressed in numbers, then a mathemacy for
consuming could be thought of in terms of a functional citizenship,
meaning that one become able to receive information from a range of
authorities and to act accordingly.
However, mathemacy need not simply be functional; it could also
include competencies in talking back to authority by being able to
critically evaluate all the goods and bads that become offered for con-
sumption. This brings us to the interpretation of mathemacy as including
a response-ability., which I consider crucial with respect to practises of
consumption.
7.4 Practices of operation

In many work situations people will operate with mathematics, although
often in an implicit way. Mathematics might be available in packages,
which it is important to be able to use. However, the details of how the
packages function need not be grasped by the person in operation. Many
times mathematics does not surface in the work situation of bank assis-
tants, shop assistants, or accountants, who are all dealing with practices
rich on mathematics compressed in packages.
As already mentioned, one characteristic of the school mathematics
tradition is the overwhelming number of exercises that students have
to solve. It might be that a readiness to follow orders and to do so in a
careful way is functional for being an operator. That is, prescription
readiness might be an important qualification for an operator. In
order to have work processes or administrative procedures running
according to schedule, it makes sense to engage people who have
demonstrated a prescription readiness. A reliable workforce should
be able to follow manuals in a careful and obedient way, and here
I use manuals in a broad interpretation, not only as related to
computation.
88
However, blindly operating according to prescriptions might be

problematic. Information and prescriptions expressed in numbers can
be reliable or not, and this reliability has to be evaluated. Furthermore,
an operator is not only listening to numbers, he or she is also acting
with reference to mathematics. This raises the question: What could
it mean to make decisions and to act with reference to numbers and
figures? Such a question calls for considerations of responsibility. If
mathematics education is meant to prepare a person for a reflective
practice of operation, we may consider how the issues of reliability and
responsibility could be addressed. This provides one particular piece
of input what a mathemacy might include.
Naturally, it is difficult to simulate elements of the practice of an
operator within a school practice. However, when the students involved
in the project Terrible Small Numbers were faced with the challenges
of having to choose between the Greek and the Spanish eggs; to clarify
their quality through a rather expensive test for salmonella; and to
make a budget that could ensure the profitability of the egg business,
they experienced aspects of a practice of operators. They had to calculate
such figures, to evaluate their reliability, and to act on these figures
being aware of the degree of their reliability.
7.5 Practices of construction

Resources for technological innovation are continuously developed.
This is part of what I refer to as the practices of construction. Mathematics
is a crucial element of such practices, and I find it particularly important
to emphasise that the preoccupations of critical mathematics education
also concern the preparation of expertise. Many times critical mathe-
matics education has been formulated as if it is primarily concerned with
elementary mathematics education and with disempowered groups
of people. Critical mathematics education is certainly thus concerned,
but not exclusively so. For me it is important to emphasise that critical
mathematics education also deals with the development of expertise.
In particular: What does responsibility as well as response-ability mean
with reference to the practices of construction? How do we interpret
the not only functional but also radical features of mathemacy with
respect to such practices?
89
CHAPTER 7
Almost any technological innovation today presupposes the

activation of mathematics. It is the task of universities and other institu-
tions of further education to prepare students for this, and any education
of engineers, economists, computer scientists, pharmacists, etc. includes
mathematics. How this education is organised is an important concern
for critical mathematics education, as university education might profile
expertise in very different ways.61
An important phenomenon needs to be observed with respect
to this education, namely the dissection of technological enterprises
into particular sub-practices. Thus, the construction of, for instance, a
destroyer is divided into a huge number of sub-tasks, as, for instance, the
researching of so-called sandwich materials. Such material consists of
different layers, and the hull of a destroyer is made of them. How to
make a sandwich material particularly strong and adequate for the hull
of a destroyer is a complex research question. However, the very cons-
truction of the sandwich material turns into a fascinating challenge
in itself. The overall military issue can be broken down into a variety
of issues, which from a scientific point of view are challenging in
themselves. Different research groups can become absorbed in tricky
problems, completely ignoring the fact that their solutions serve as part
of an overall military research programme. Such forms of dissection
are a general phenomenon within engineering education. Thus, the
curriculum within any engineering education can be divided into a set of
curriculum-specific activities, which in turn can be judged according to
some internal criteria of quality. For instance, the relevant knowledge
needed to pass a test in a course in mathematics can be formulated
in mathematical terms. I see dissection of the curriculum as one basic
element in letting ethical considerations with respect to engineering
and technology be excluded from the education of expertise.
I find it problematic that the modern conception of mathematics
still dominates much university education which establishes expertise
within technical domains. Here mathematical rationality is broadly
celebrated. For me an important question is: How is it possible to include
mathematical competence in broader technological competence without
assuming or promoting the impression that mathematical techniques
61 See, for instance, Skovsmose, Valero and Christensen (Eds.) (2009); and
Skovsmose (2006b, 2008b, 2009a).
90
ensure neutrality and objectivity? A mathematical rationality should

not be blindly celebrated, but questioned. An education for social
responsibility with respect to practices of construction needs to acknow-
ledge the critical conception of mathematics. This means that the
different aspects of mathematics in action need to be reflected upon
as part of a mathemacy for expertise.
91
Chapter 8
Uncertainty
I have tried to characterise critical mathematics education in terms of
a number of preoccupations. However, I do not see such preoccu-
pations as taking up any systematic form. They cannot be enumerated.
In fact I have only formulated preoccupations indirectly by referring
to some more overall issues as follows.
Mathematics education is undetermined. It has no essence. It can be
elaborated in many different ways and come to serve very different
socio-political, economic and cultural interests. One could see a mathe-
matics education as submitting to a logic of domination and control.
One could also imagine a mathematics education that could prepare
for a critical citizenship. Furthermore, one could assume that any such
dualistic interpretation might only be a gross simplification of the huge
varieties of roles a mathematics education might play in society.
I have talked about the diversity of situations for the teaching and
learning of mathematics, and questioned the possibility of operating with
prototypical, or stereotypical, assumptions about educational conditions.
I find that the prototypical classroom has dominated much research in
mathematics education, although this prototype in most cases appear
far removed from experienced teaching-learning situations. I find it to
be important not to embark on prototypical assumptions in the process
of theorising.
Through the notion of students foreground I try to identify
important features of processes of learning and the construction of
meaning. Experiences of meaning has to do with experiences of relation-
ships. It could be relationships between what is taking place in the class-
room and the students background as well as their daily-life experiences.
However, I find that the experience of meaningfulness has much to
do with experienced relationships between activities in the classroom
and the students foreground. Furthermore, I find a foreground to be
a dynamic entity. Foregrounds can be reconstructed, and meaningful
mathematics education contributes to an ongoing construction and
93
CHAPTER 8
reconstruction of foregrounds. It helps to provide new opportunities

in life.
Through the notion for landscapes of investigation I try to expand
the scope of educational possibilities beyond the exercise paradigm.
I find that different teaching-learning milieus provides different oppor-
tunities, for instance with respect to meaning construction. While the
exercise paradigm to some extent can be associated to a comfort zone,
landscapes of investigation bring us into a risk zone. This zone, however,
is also a zone of educational possibilities, and I find it important that
such possibilities become explored.
A critical conception of mathematics moves beyond the modern
conception of mathematics, which has presented mathematics and mathe-
matical rationality in a attractive format, and which has nominated
mathematics teachers as ambassadors of mathematics. According to a
critical conception of mathematics, mathematics makes part of a huge
variety of actions within all spheres of life. Such actions could have
all kind of qualities; they could serve many different interests. Thus
mathematics does not preserve any sublime format. It makes part of
daily-life processes as well as technological endeavours, some of which
might be of dubious nature.
This calls for the necessity of reflections. It is important to address
any form of mathematical rationality through reflections. It is important
to reflect on mathematics, including all the action in which they make
part. Besides, one should not forget that it might be powerful also to
reflect with mathematics, and that it is possible to reflect through inquiry
processes.
This brings us to the notion of mathemacy, which could play an
important roles in formulating some of the aspirations of critical mathe-
matics education. I have tried to formulate aspirations of critical mathe-
matics education in terms of mathemacy in globalised an ghettoised world. I am
inspired by the suggestion of reading responsibility as response-ability,
and I read mathemacy as including a capacity of making responses and
as reading the world as being open to change. I find it important that
critical mathematics education explore what this could mean with respect
different groups of people, from the groups of marginalised to the
groups of experts.
Then, what were the preoccupations? One might find that I have
not been explicit, but only talked about issues that might relate to
94
UNCERTAINTY
preoccupations which characterise critical mathematics education. Time

has come to become explicit. Nevertheless, I turn in a different direction.
Instead of trying to be explicit I will emphasise that any critical approach,
also critical mathematics education, is an expression of profound un-
certainties, which also applies to the formulation of preoccupations.
The notion of critique was explored through Critical Theory,
which provided much inspiration for the initial formulation of critical
education in general. It is important, however, to establish a departure
from some of the assumptions that might be lingering in previous
formulations of critical education in order to formulate a critical
mathematics education for the future.62
In order to be more specific, I will outline some of the roots of
critical thinking as they developed through Modernity. I want briefly to
consider the conception of critique with reference to ideas of Ren
Descartes, Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx.
Descartes introduced a universal doubt as an epistemic device.
He wanted to ground knowledge in a solid foundation, and to that end
all forms of assumed knowledge had to undergo a critical revision. The
idea was that everything it is possible to doubt should be doubted, and
consequently eliminated (at least provisionally) from the established stock
of knowledge. Left was only that which could not be doubted, and
according to Descartes only one statement remained after the universal
doubt had swept through all faculties of assumed human knowledge.
This statement, cogito, ergo sum, represented not only a truth, but a truth-
with-certainty. According to Descartes, knowledge should be composed
of statements which are true-with-certainty, and only of such statements.
This means that the purpose of a critical activity was to establish, through
a universal doubt, a foundation for genuine knowledge, which in turn
was characterised in terms of truth and certainty. This way a critical
activity came to be part of establishing epistemic absolutism.
Kant also wanted to address the whole stock of possible human
knowledge: What could be known and what could not be known?
Through his monumental work, Critique of Pure Reason, he tried to
provide a study of the general conditions for obtaining knowledge.
Critique was conducted as an a priori activity, which anticipated the
formulation of particular forms of knowledge. Critique became a way
62 I have tried in different ways to formulate a critical mathematics education
for the future. See, of instance, Skovsmose (2008c). See also Rasmussen (2010).
95
CHAPTER 8
of formulating general and a priori conditions for obtaining knowledge.

But what epistemic resources could be available to Kant in conducting
such an a priori investigation of knowledge? What epistemic layer
comes before knowledge? As Kant wanted to address all forms of
knowledge, he could not presuppose any particular piece of knowledge.
Kant found, however, that it was possible to carry out a critical investi-
gation of the general conditions for obtaining knowledge in the form of
a transcendental philosophy. In this way critique became an expression
of a transcendental certainty, and Kant found that his Critique of Pure
Reason provided a clarification, once and for all, of human conditions
for obtaining knowledge. In this sophisticated way, Kant established a
connection between critique and epistemic absolutism.
Marxs critical approach was different. He wanted not only to
establish a critical investigation of economic theories, but also to criticise
the economic systems themselves. He formulated a critique, not only
as an epistemological activity, as did Descartes and Kant, but also as a
social and political activity. At the same time, he wanted to establish this
broad scope of critical activities on a solid foundation, which was to
take the form of a proper formulation of the logic which governs social
development. This logic, in turn, was shaped through the laws that
govern economic development, and it was Marx ambition to formulate
these laws. When this was completed, any critical activity, including
those that address the social-political an economic realities, could be
given a solid foundation.
Critical Theory provided an important step out of Marxist ortho-
doxy. I can think of two possible illustrations of this step. The Dialectics
of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno anticipates
much of the critique of the modern outlook that later became formulated
my Michel Foucault and which turned into post-modernism and post-
structuralism. It is difficult to locate any foundational assumptions in
The Dialectics of Enlightenment. To me the work represents a step towards
developing a notion of critique which does not incorporate foundational
assumptions. The other book I will refer to is the Arcade Project, where
Walter Benjamin tried to formulate a critical investigation of a whole
period by taking as his point of departure the architectural innovations
signified by the arcades in Paris, constructed during the first half of the
19th century. This critical investigation was not completed by Benjamin,
but the posthumously published Arcade Project demonstrates Benjamins
96
UNCERTAINTY
anarchistic methodological approach. Through a highly elaborate patch-

work of quotations, he provided an almost surrealistic presentation of
his insight. The Arcade Project breaks with any assumptions of what
could be considered a proper critical approach. Benjamin brings critique
away from any predetermined methodological regulations.
For me it is important to move beyond a conception of critique
which includes any assumption of the possibility of building ones
approach on a solid foundation or through a well-defined methodology.
This means to acknowledge that critique is a deeply uncertain activity.
This is an important acknowledgement for any critical education that tries
to move beyond the outlook of modernity. It is important for the
formulation of a critical mathematics education for the future.63
This observation could bring us towards an opposite extreme:
absolute relativism. According to absolute relativism there are no cons-
tructive elements associated with a critical activity. It is not possible
through such an activity to formulate suggestions about what could be
done. With respect to education, absolute relativism cannot result in
proposals for action. Such absolute relativism can be associated to some
educational approaches formulated with reference to a post-modern or
post-structural outlook, emphasising that any theory-based suggestions
for improvement is an expression of educational romanticism. There
is no way of providing the notion of improvement with meaning.
I try not to be trapped by absolutism, nor by absolute relativism.
But how to locate a critical activity somewhere between absolutism
and absolute relativism? My proposal is to think of a critical position
in terms of preoccupations. On the one hand, it is important to acknow-
ledge that preoccupations are discursively constructed and depend on
the formulated perspective. On the other hand, a discursive construc-
tion is not a completely free enterprise. Reconsidering the pictures from
A Cradle of Inequality one could try to create a discourse, according to
which a shadow beneath some trees is called a classroom. And one could
try to formulate a discourse according to which children bringing wood
to the school in order to ensure the heating of their classroom is part
of a chemistry education. However, whatever discourse we create, the
classroom in the format of a shadow has no electricity and there are
no computers operating there. No change of discourse provides any
63 See also Ernest (2010); Knijnik and Bocasante (2010); Pais (2010); and
Valero and Stentoft (2010).
97
CHAPTER 8
heating to any classrooms. A change of discourse makes changes, but not

all kinds of changes can be established through a change of discourse.
Different discourses establish different preoccupations. To me
critical mathematics education is characterised through its preoccupa-
tions. I have tried to address some, although not in terms of any simple
enumeration. I have tried to present some notions that provide a
grammar of preoccupations. This whole approach, however, includes
a profound uncertainty. This uncertainty applies to all the features I have
suggested to become included in a grammar of preoccupations. Thus
I do not believe a justification of a particular conceptual network for
the expression of preoccupations. My uncertainty also applies to what
I, in this Chapter 8, have said about uncertainty.
98
References
Abreu, G. (1993). The relationship between home and school mathematics in a
farming community in rural Brazil. Doctoral dissertation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University.
Adorno, T. W. (1971). Erziehung zur Mndigkeit. Frankfurt am Main:
Suhrkamp.
Alr, H., & Johnsen-Hines, M. (2010). Critical dialogue in mathematics
education. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero (Eds.), Critical mathe-
matics education: Past, present and future (pp. 1121). Rotterdam: Sense
Publisher.
Alr, H., Ravn, O., & Valero, P. (Eds.). (2010). Critical mathematics
education: Past, present, and future. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Alr, H., & Skovsmose, O. (2002). Dialogue and learning in mathematics
education: Intention, reflection, critique. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Alr, H., Skovsmose, O., & Valero, P. (2009). Inter-viewing fore-
grounds: Students motives for learning in a multicultural setting.
In M. Csar & K. Kumpulainen (Eds.), Social interactions in multicultural
settings (pp. 1337). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Appelbaum, P., & Allan, D. S. (2008). Embracing mathematics: On becoming
a teacher and changing with mathematics. New York: Routledge.
Atweh, B. (2007). Pedagogy for socially response-able mathematics education.
Paper presented at the annual conference of the Australian Associa-
tion of Research in Education. Fremantle, West Australia. Retrieved
from http://www.aaere.edu.au/07pap/atw07600.pdf
Atweh. B. (2009). Ethical responsibility and the What and the Why
of mathematics education in a global context. In P. Ernest, B. Greer, &
B. Sriraman (Eds.), Critical issues in mathematics education (pp. 717).
Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Baber, S. A. (2010). Mathematics from the perspective of critical socio-
logy. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero, P. (Eds.), Critical mathematics
education: Past, present and future (pp. 2329). Rotterdam: Sense Publisher.
99
REFERENCES
Benjamin, W. (1999). The arcades project. Cambridge (USA) and London:

The Belknap Press of Haward University Press.
Beth, E. W., & Piaget, J. (1966). Mathematical epistemology and psychology.
Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
Biotto Filho, D. (2008). O desenvolvimento da matemacia no trabalho com
projetos. Unpublished Master Thesis. Universidade Estadual Paulista
(UNESP), Instituto de Geocincias e Cincias Exatas, Campus Rio
Claro.
Brentano, F. (1995a). Psychology from an empirical standpoint (A. C. Rancurello,
D. B. Terrell, & L. L. McAlister, Trans.; with an introduction by
Peter Simons). London: Routledge. (First German edition 1874.)
Brentano, F. (1995b). Descriptive psychology (B. Mller, Trans. and Ed.).
London: Routledge. (Lectures between 18871891: First German
edition 1982.)
Christensen, O. R., Skovsmose, O., & Yasukawa, K. (2009). The mathe-
matical state of the world: Explorations into the characteristics of
mathematical descriptions. In B. Sriraman & S. Goodchild (Eds.),
Relatively and philosophically earnest: Festschrift in honor of Paul Ernests
65th birthday (pp. 8396). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
(First published in Alexandria: Journal of Science and Technology Education,
1(1), 7790.)
Christensen, O. R., Stentoft, D., & Valero, P. (2007). Power distribution
in the network of mathematics education practices. In E. de Freitas &
K. Nolan (Eds.), Opening the research text: Critical insights and in(ter)-
ventions into mathematics education (pp. 131146). New York: Springer.
Chronaki, A. (2010). Revisiting mathemacy: A process-reading of
critical mathematics education. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero
(Eds.), Critical mathematics education: Past, present and future (pp. 3149).
Rotterdam: Sense Publisher.
Curry, H. B. (1951). Outlines of a formalist philosophy of mathematics.
Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.
DAmbrosio, U. (2006). Ethnomathematics: Link between transitions and
modernity. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
DAmbrosio, U. (2010). Mathematics education and survival with dignity.
In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero(Eds.), Critical mathematics education:
Past, present and future (pp. 5163). Rotterdam: Sense Publisher.
100
REFERENCES
Ernest, P. (2009). Mathematics education ideologies and globalization. In

P. Ernest, B. Greer, & B. Sriraman (Eds.), Critical issues in mathematics
education (pp. 67110). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Ernest, P. (2010). The scope and limits of critical mathematics education.
In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero(Eds.), Critical mathematics education:
Ernest, P., Greer, B., & Sriraman, B. (Eds.). (2009). Critical issues in
mathematics education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Foucault, M. (1989). The archeology of knowledge. London: Routledge.
(First French edition 1969.)
Foucault, M. (1994). The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences.
New York: Vintage Books. (First French edition 1966.)
Foucault, M. (2000). Power (J. D. Faubion, Ed.; R. Hurley and others,
Trans.). New York: The New Press.
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Freire, P. (1974). Cultural action for freedom. Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books.
Gates, P. (2006). The place of equity and social justice in the history of
PME. In A. Gutrrez & P. Boero (Eds.), Handbook of research on the
psychology of mathematics education: Past, present and future (pp. 367402).
Rotterdam: Sense Publishes.
Gerdes, P. (2008). Exemplos de Aplicaes da Matemtica na Agricultura e
na Veterinria (New ed.). Maputo: Lulu.com and TLANU.
Greer, B. (2008). Discounting Iraqi deaths: A social and educational
disgrace. In J. F. Matos, P. Valero, & K. Yasukawa (Eds.), Proceedings
of the fifth international mathematics education and society conference. Lisbon:
Centro de Investigao em Educao, Universidade de Lisboa
Department of Education, Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg
University.
Greer, B. Mukhopadhyay, S., Powell, A. B., & Nelson-Barber, S. (Eds.).
(2009). Culturally responsive mathematics education. New York: Routledge.
Gutstein, E. (2006). Reading and writing the world with mathematics: Toward
a pedagogy for social justice. New York and London: Routledge.
Gutstein, E. (2008). Building political relationships with students. In
E. de Freitas & K. Nolan (Eds.), Opening the research text: Critical
101
REFERENCES
insights and in(ter)ventions into mathematics education (pp. 189204).

New York: Springer.
Gutstein, E. (2009). Possibilities and challenges in teaching mathematics
for social justice. In P. Ernest, B. Greer, B., & B. Sriraman (Eds.),
Critical issues in mathematics education (pp. 351373). Charlotte, NC:
Information Age Publishing.
Hilbert, D. (1968). Grundlagen der geometrie. Stuttgart: Teubner. (First
published 1899.)
Horkheimer, M., & Adorno. T. W. (2002). Dialectic of enlightenment
(J. Cumming, Trans.). New York: Continuum. (First published
1947).
Husserl, E. (1998). Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a
phenomenological philosophy: First book. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers. (First German version 1913.)
Husserl, E. (1970). The crisis of European sciences and transcendental
phenomenology (D. Car, Transl., with an introduction). Evanston, IL:
Northwestern University Press. (First German version 1936.)
Jablonka, E. (2003). Mathematical literacy. In A. J. Bishop,
M. A. Clements, C. Keitel, J. Kilpatrick, & F. K. S. Leung (Eds.),
Second international handbook of mathematics education (pp. 75102).
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Jablonka, E. (2010). Reflections on mathematical modelling. In H. Alr,
O. Ravn, & P. Valero, P. (Eds.), Critical mathematics education: Past,
present and future (pp. 89100). Rotterdam: Sense Publisher.
Kant, I. (1933). Critique of pure reason (N. K. Smith, Trans.). London:
MacMillan. (Original German edition 1791.)
Knijnik, G. (2009). Mathematics education and the Brazilian landless
movement: Three different mathematics in the context of struggle
for social justice. In P. Ernest, B. Greer, & B. Sriraman (Eds.), Critical
issues in mathematics education (pp. 153169). Charlotte, NC: Infor-
mation Age Publishing.
Knijnik, G., & Bocasante, D. M. (2010). Do ofcio da pesquisa: Plulas
neoaforistica About the craft of research: Neoaphoristic pills. In
H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero (Eds.), Critical mathematics education:
102
REFERENCES
Lindenskov, L. (2010). Students curriculum in critical mathematics

education. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero (Eds.), Critical mathematics
education: Past, present and future (pp. 121131). Rotterdam: Sense
Publisher.
Mesquita, M. (2004). O conceito de espaco na cultural de criana em
situatio de rua: Um estudo etnomatemtico. In J. P. M. Ribeiro,
M. do C. S. Domite, & R. Ferreira (Eds.), Etnomatemtica: Papel, valor e
significado (pp. 125136). So Paolo: Zouk.
Mora, D. (Ed.). (2005). Didctica crtica, educacin crtica de las matemticas y
etnomatemtica: Perspectivas para la transformacin de la educacin matemtica
en Amrica Latina. La Paz: Gidem.
OEEC. (1961). New thinking in school mathematics. OEEC: Paris.
Pais, A. (2010). Portrait of an influence. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero
Penteado, M. G. (2001). Computer-based learning environments: Risks
and uncertainties for teachers. Ways of Knowing, 1(2), 2335.
Penteado, M. G., & Skovsmose, O. (2009). How to draw with a worn-
out mouse? Searching for social justice through collaboration. Journal
for Mathematics Teacher Education, 12(3), 217230.
Piaget, J. (1970). Genetic epistemology. New York: Columbia University
Press.
Planas, N., & Civil, M. (2010). Discourse processes in critical mathe-
matics education. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero (Eds.), Critical
mathematics education: Past, present and future (pp. 145159). Rotterdam:
Sense Publisher.
Ravn, O. (2010). Step beyond mathematics: Investigations in the
philosophy of mathematics. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero (Eds.),
Critical mathematics education: Past, present and future (pp. 171181).
Rasmussen, P. (2010). The critical perspective on education and on
mathematics education. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero (Eds.),
Critical mathematics education: Past, present and future (pp. 161169).
103
REFERENCES
Rnning, F. (2010). Hvor mange kanter har en firedimensjonal terning?

Tangenten, (2), 510, 17.
Salgado, S., & Buarque, C. (2005). O Bero da desigualdade. So Paulo:
Editora UNESCO no Brasil.
Santos, M., & Matos, J. F. (2002). Thinking about mathematical
learning with Cabo Verde Ardinas. In G. de Abreu, A. Bishop, &
N. C. Presmeg (Eds.), Transitions between contexts of mathematical practices
(pp. 81122). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Skovsmose, O. (1994). Towards a philosophy of critical mathematical education.
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Skovsmose, O. (2001). Landscapes of investigation. ZDM The Inter-
national Journal on Mathematics Education, 33(4), 123132.
Skovsmose, O. (2005). Travelling through education: Uncertainty, mathematics,
responsibility. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Skovsmose, O. (2006a). Reflections as a challenge. ZDM The International
Journal on Mathematics Education, 38(4), 323332.
Skovsmose, O. (2006b). Challenges for mathematics education research.
In J. Maasz & W. Schloegelmann (Eds.), New mathematics education
research and practice (pp. 3350). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Skovsmose, O. (2006c). Research, practice, uncertainty and respon-
sibility. Journal of Mathematical Behaviour, 25(4), 267284.
Skovsmose, O. (2007a). Foregrounds and politics of learning
obstacles. In U. Gellert & E. Jablonka (Eds.), Mathematisation
Demathematisation: Social, philosophical, sociological and educational ramifica-
tions (pp. 8194). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. (First published in For
the Learning of Mathematics, 25(1), 410.)
Skovsmose, O. (2007b). Doubtful rationality. ZDM The International
Journal on Mathematics Education, 39(3), 215224.
Skovsmose, O. (2007c). Mathematical literacy and globalisation. In
B. Atweh, et al. (Eds.), Internationalisation and globalisation in mathe-
matics and science education (pp. 318). New York: Springer.
Skovsmose, O. (2008a). Mathematics education in a knowledge market.
In E. de Freitas & K. Nolan (Eds.), Opening the research text: Critical
104
REFERENCES
insights and in(ter)ventions into mathematics education (pp. 159174).

New York: Springer.
Skovsmose, O. (2008b). Critical professionalism in mathematics teacher
education. Revista Pesquisa Qualitative, 3(1), 5572.
Skovsmose, O. (2008c). Critical mathematics education for the future.
In M. Niss (Ed.), ICME-10 proceedings and regular lectures (on CD).
Roskilde: IMFUFA, Department of Science, Systems and Models,
Roskilde University, Denmark.
Skovsmose, O. (2009a). Towards as critical professionalism in University
science and mathematics education. In O. Skovsmose, P. Valero, &
O. Ravn Christensen (Eds.), University sciences and mathematics education
in transition (pp. 325346). New York: Springer.
Skovsmose, O. (2009b). In doubt about language, mathematics, knowledge
and life-world. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Skovsmose, O. (in print ). Critical mathematics education in terms of
concerns. In B. Sriraman, et al. (Eds.), The sourcebook on Nordic research
in mathematics education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing,
Inc.
Skovsmose, O., Alr, H., & Valero, P. in collaboration with Silvrio,
A. P. and Scandiuzzi, P. P. (2008). Before you divide you have to
add: Inter-viewing Indian students foregrounds. In B. Sriraman
(Ed.), International perspectives on social justice in mathematics education
(pp. 209230). The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast, Monograph 1.
Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Skovsmose, O., & Penteado, M. G. (in print). Ghettoes in the classroom
and the construction of possibilities. In B. Atweh, et al. (Eds.),
Mapping equity and quality in mathematics education. New York: Springer.
Skovsmose, O., Scandiuzzi, P. P., Valero, P., & Alr, H. (2008).
Learning mathematics in a Borderland position: Students fore-
grounds and intentionality in a Brazilian Favela. Journal of Urban
Mathematics Education, 1(1), 3559.
Skovsmose, O., & Valero, P. (2008), Democratic access to powerful
mathematical ideas. In L. English (Ed.), Handbook of international
research in mathematics education (2nd ed., pp. 415438). New York
and London: Routledge.
105
REFERENCES
Skovsmose, O., Valero, P., & Ravn Christensen, O. (Eds.). (2009).

University sciences and mathematics education in transition. New York:
Springer.
Sriraman, B. (Ed.). (2008). International perspectives on social justice in
mathematics education. The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast, Mono-
graph 1. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
UNESCO. (2000). Education for all: Statistical assessment 2000. Paris:
UNESCO. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/
0012/001204/120472e.pdf
Valero, P. (2002). Reform, democracy, and mathematics education: Towards a
socio-political frame for understanding change in the organization of secondary
school mathematics. Doctoral Dissertation. Copenhagen: Department
of Curriculum Research, The Danish University of Education.
Valero, P. (2004). Postmodernism as an attitude of critique to dominant
mathematics education research. In M. Walshaw (Ed.), Mathematics
education within the postmodern (pp. 3554). Greenwich, CT: Infor-
mation Age Publishing.
Valero, P. (2007). In between the global and the local: The politics of
mathematics education reform in a globalized society. In B. Atweh,
et al. (Eds.), Internationalisation and globalisation in mathematics and science
education (pp. 421439). New York: Springer.
Valero, P. (2009). What has power to do with mathematics education?
In P. Ernest, B. Greer, & B. Sriraman (Eds.), Critical issues in mathe-
matics education (pp. 237254). Charlotte, NC: Information Age
Publishing.
Valero, P., & Stentoft, D. (2010). The post move of critical mathematics
education. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero (Eds.), Critical mathematics
education: Past, present and future (pp. 183195). Rotterdam: Sense
Publisher.
Valero, P., & Zevenbergen, R. (Eds.). (2004). Researching the socio-political
dimensions of mathematics education: Issues of power in theory and methodology.
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Vithal, R. (2007). The Uncivilised scientist. In U. Gellert & E. Jablonka
(Eds.), Mathematisation Demathematisation: Social, philosophical, socio-
logical and educational ramifications (pp. 95105). Rotterdam: Sense
Publishers.
106
REFERENCES
Vithal, R. (2009). Researching, and learning mathematics at the margin:

From Shelter to school. In P. Ernest, B. Greer, B., & B. Sriraman
(Eds.), Critical issues in mathematics education (pp. 475484). Charlotte,
NC: Information Age Publishing.
Vithal, R. (2010). Democratising mathematics education doctoral
research teaching and learning: Undoing the North-South divide. In
H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero, (Eds.), Critical mathematics education:
Vithal, R., & Valero, P. (2003). Researching mathematics education
in situations of social and political conflict. In A. J. Bishop,
M. A. Clements, C. Keitel, J. Kilpatrick, & F. K. S. Leung (Eds.),
Second international handbook of mathematics education (pp. 545591).
Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Whitehead, A. N., & Russell, B. (19101913). Principia mathematica I-III.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wittgenstein, L. (1958). Philosophical investigations (2nd ed.). (G. E. M.
Anscombe, Trans.). Oxford: Blackwell. (First published 1953)
World Bank. (2006). Equity and development: World development report
2006. Washington and New York: A copublication of The World
Bank and Oxford University Press.
Yasukawa, K. (2010). Educating critical mathematics educators: Chal-
lenges for teacher educators. In H. Alr, O. Ravn, & P. Valero
107
Name Index
A D
Abreu, G., 85 DAmbrosio, U., 20
Adorno, T. W., 11, 96 Descartes, R., 50-51, 95, 96
Allan, D. S., 2n1
Alr, H., 2n1, 18n10, E
22n16, 27n23, 29n28, Ernest, P., 2n1, 82n52, 97n63
31n30, 39n32, 72n46,
78n48, 80 F
Appelbaum, P., 2n1 Foucault, M., 9, 60-61, 96
Atweh, B., 86 Frege, G., 27n24
Austin, J. L., 61 Freire, P., 11, 83
B G
Baber, S. A., 62n45 Galilei, G., 50
Bacon, F., 52, 59 Gates, P., 11n4
Beard, C. A., 53 Gerdes, P., 85
Benigni, R., 7 Gdel, K., 55n39
Benjamin, W., 96, 97 Gorgori, N., 86n57
Beth, E. W., 57n41 Greer, B., 2n1, 87n60
Biotto Filho, D., 41n33, 48, Gutstein, E., 83n54
76n47, 77
Blomhj, M., 72n46
Bocasante, D. M., 97n63 H
Hilbert, D., 54-55
Bourbaki, N., 27, 57
Horkheimer, M., 96
Brentano, F., 24, 25 Husserl, E., 22, 25
Buarque, C., 17
Bdtkjer, H., 11, 72n46, 73 J
Jablonka, E., 62n45, 83n54
C Johnsen-Hines, M., 80n50
Christensen, O. R., 9n3,
62n45, 90n61 K
Chronaki, A., 83n54 Kant, I., 61, 95, 96
Civil, M., 80n50 Kepler, J., 50
Copernicus, N., 49, 50 Khuzwayo, H., 26n22
Curry, H. B., 55, 56n40 Knijnik, G., 87n59, 97
109
NAME INDEX
L S
Lindenskov, L., 22n16 Salgado, S., 17
Santos, M., 85
M Sapir, E., 61
Matos, J. F., 85 Scandiuzzi, P. P., 29n28
Mesquita, M., 85 Silvrio, A. P., 29n28
Mora, D., 2n1 Sknstrm, M., 34, 72n46
Mukhopadhyay, S., 2n1 Sriraman, B., 2n1
Stentoft, D., 9n3, 97n63
N Stone, M. H., 56
Nelson-Barber, S., 2n1
Newton, I., 51 V
Valero, P., 2n1, 9n3, 18n11,
P 19n12, 22n16, 27n23, 29n28,
Pais, A., 97n63 60n43, 90n61, 97n63
Penteado, M. G., 29n26, 30, Vithal, R., 19n12, 21n15, 29n27
47, 85n56
Piaget, J., 5758 W
Planas, N., 80n50, 86n57 Whitehead, A. N., 5354
Powell, A. B., 2n1 Whorf, B. L., 61
Ptolemy, 50 Wittgenstein, L., 5, 61
R Y
Rasmussen, P., 95n62 Yasukawa, K., 47n37, 62n45
Ravn, O., 2n1, 62n45
Rnning, F., 36n31 Z
Russell, B., 5354 Zevenbergen, R., 19n12
110
Subject Index
A ethnomathematics, 10, 27, 28,
ambassador of mathematics, 75, 85
57, 94 Euclidean geometry, 54
axiomatic organisation of Euclidean paradigm, 54
mathematics, 54 exemplarity, 13n7
B F
background, 2223, 25, 2830, foreground, 3, 2130, 86, 9394
42, 85, 86, 93 foreground investigation, 27, 29
formalism, 6, 55n39, 56
C formatting of reality, 61
Caramel Boxes project,
7879, 80 G
City Planning project, 41, genetic epistemology, 5758
44n35, 7677 ghettoising, 1920, 81, 84
comfort zone, 3, 4748, 94 globalisation, 1920, 81, 82
concientizaao, 11
Copernican revolution, 52 H
critical conception of human consciousness, 2425
mathematics, 3, 4, 49, hypothetical reasoning, 62,
5970, 91, 94 6465, 75
critical rationality, 60
I
D illocutionary force, 61
dissolution of responsibility, input-output figures, 1214, 41
62, 68, 75 inquiry, 3, 31, 33, 38, 39, 45,
diversity of situations, 3, 72, 7780, 94
1720, 93 intentionality, 3, 2427, 28, 29,
30, 31, 33, 45
E
educational possibilities, 3, J
31, 94 justification, 62, 6566, 75, 98
empowerment, 1011, 14,
15, 86 K
Energy project, 11, 14, 15, 41, knowledge-power interaction,
77, 7980 61
111
SUBJECT INDEX
L meaning in mathematics
landscapes of investigation, 3, education, 27-30, 31, 93
4, 3148, 77, 80, 94 mechanical world view, 24, 25,
language-game, 5 50, 51
learning as action, 25, 31 modern conception of
Learning from Diversity mathematics, 4958
project, 27, 29 Modernity, 49, 52, 53, 60,
legitimation, 62, 6566 95, 97
life-world, 13, 22, 23, 61, modern mathematics
67, 83 education, 2728,
locutionary content, 61 5658, 72
logical structures of Modern Mathematics
mathematics, 28, 57 Movement, 28
logicism, 6, 54n38
Movimento Sem Terra
(landless peoples
M
movement), 87
mathemacy, 3, 4, 8191, 94
mathematical consistency, 55 Mndigkeit, 11
mathematical existence, 55
mathematical rationality, N
5760, 70, 76, 90, 91, 94 neo-Platonism, 49
mathematical truth, 5356
mathematics, discourses and P
power, 6062 perlocutionary effect, 61
mathematics and natural Post-Modernity, 49
sciences, 4952 power, 10, 6062
mathematics and purity, Practices
5356 practices of consumption,
mathematics and technology, 84, 8788
5253 practices of operation, 84,
mathematics in action 8889
dissolution of practises of construction,
responsibility, 62, 68, 75 84, 8991
hypothetical reasoning, 62, practises of the
6465, 75 marginalised, 8487
legitimation or justification, preoccupations, 14, 60, 72,
62, 6566, 75 89, 9395, 97, 98
realisation, 62, 6667 prescription readiness, 910,
technological imagination, 16, 46, 83, 88
6264, 66, 75 problem-solving, 45
112
SUBJECT INDEX
prototypical mathematics stereotypical classroom, 18

classroom, 18 students foreground, 34,
Pythagorean, 49, 50 2130, 86, 9394
R T
realisation, 62, 6667 teaching-learning milieus,
real-life reference, 41, 42 4748, 94
reflection, 68-70, 7180 technological imagination,
reflective abstraction, 5758 6364, 66, 75
risk society, 59, 60, 65 techno-nature, 59, 60, 67,
risk zones, 3, 4748, 94 69, 70
tradition of exercises, 40, 45
S
school mathematics tradition, U
710, 31, 45, 47, 88 uncertainty, 3, 4, 9398
Scientific Revolution, 10, undetermined, 2, 3, 516, 93
4952, 59 undetermined rationality, 60
semi-reality, 3941, 45, 79
situation, diversity of 3, W
1720, 93 wonder-horror dichotomy, 69
speech act
illocutionary force, 61 Z
locutionary content, 61 zone of possibilities, 3,
perlocutionary effect, 61 4748, 94
113

Critical ME

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Critical ME

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

An Invitation to Critical

ISBN: 978-94-6091-440-9 (paperback)

Published by: Sense Publishers,

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved 2011 Sense Publishers

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted

Chapter 1: Mathematics education is undetermined 5

Chapter 2: Diversity of situations 17

Chapter 3: Students foregrounds 21

Chapter 4: Landscapes of investigation 31

Intermezzo: The modern conception of mathematics 49

Chapter 5: A critical conception of mathematics 59

Chapter 7: Mathemacy in a globalised and ghettoised world 81

Name Index 109

Subject Index 111

Rio Claro, January 2011

culture, ideologies and political systems. Changing a discourse means

1 A rich exploration of issues of critical mathematics education is found in

I will use the notion of situation in order to emphasise the

foreground, landscapes of investigation, critical conception of mathematics, reflection,

it is possible to provide a neat and universal defining clarification

1.1 Mathematics education is disempowering

appreciated in todays labour market, but which we as mathematics

As most other exercises from the school mathematics tradition, this

Such exercises have to be solved correctly and the correctness of

that the school mathematics tradition serves society perfectly well in

1.2 Mathematics education is empowering

a range of such applications emerged along with the industrial revolu-

4 See, for instance, Gates (2006).

on all the information available about the energy content, measured in

7 For a discussion for exemplarity as an educational concept, see Skovsmose

some extreme simplifications; nevertheless the project illustrated some

1.3 Being undetermined

different route. Thus, the discourse about mathematics education for

assume a prescription-readiness. So when I describe mathematics

8 See Salgado and Buarque (2005).

2.1 A bias in mathematics education research?

might demonstrate a behaviour that is noisy and disruptive and far

2.2 Contrast through globalisation and ghettoising

I completely agree. Particularly in connection with the ethnomathe-

broader exploration of a mathematics education for survival with dignity.

for the person.16 This formulation, however, needs a number of clari-

16 For the introduction of the notion of foreground, see Skovsmose (1994).

sciousness as he suggested. See Husserl (1970), as well as Skovsmose (2009b).

of their background. Nevertheless, foreground and background are

that it seems devoid of attractive possibilities. A ruined foreground does

3.2 Intentionality and learning

18 See Brentano (1995a, 1995b).

to present the line of causalities that end up in the physical operations

19 See, for instance Husserl (1998).

somehow have the intention of following orders. Whatever comes

3.3 Meaning in mathematics education

sense and to what degree the meaning of a complex or molecular concept

organisation of how complex concepts should be taught and learnt.

In a public school in Rio Claro, a city in the interior of the So

26 In a conversation this example about surfing has been presented to me by

(2008); and Skovsmose, Scandiuzzi, Valero and Alr (2008).

strong interest in continuing to work in the fields and to stay in the

29 See also Penteado and Skovsmose (2009).

30For a presentation for landscapes of investigation see Skovsmose (2001),

factors. Some landscapes might be attractive to some students in some

4.1 Entering a landscape of investigation

Find the equation that defines the function f 1.

I can still remember, many years ago, when some of my students