Promoting social justice in and through the mathematics curriculum: Exploring the connections with epistemologies of mathematics

Abstract

This article rehearses the argument that being a critical mathematics educator is associated with a particular epistemological stance, one which views the truths of mathematics as historically located, influenced by the knower and mutable. Case study data, collected in England, is offered which exemplifies this connection between epistemology and openness to equity issues in the thinking of some beginning secondary mathematics teachers. Teachers' responses are analysed around four themes: their beliefs about the nature of mathematics, how those beliefs affect their pedagogy, how they explain student failure, and their views on initial teacher education. These are linked to their commitment to social justice in and through mathematics. The links between subject studies in teacher education and equity issues in the classroom are discussed.

The Sociopolitical Turn in Mathematics Education

“…If mathematics is not something out there (rational, universal, innately useful), separate from humans, then researchers and practitioners can learn from students and communities (both inside and outside of school) the various meanings that can be ascribed to doing/creating mathematics. Some research suggests that, in fact, holding a view of mathematics where truth is historically located, connected to the knower, and mutable may be an important component of being a critical mathematics educator (Povey, 2002).…”

Mathematics teachers and social justice: a systematic review of empirical studies

“…Mamolo & Pinto, 2015;Mhlolo & Schäfer, 2012), identifying internal and external factors that may facilitate or prohibit the implementation of social justice pedagogies. A third type is based on qualitative interviews with teachers (see Povey, 2002;Paygoza 2016;Turkkan & Karakus, 2018). Typically employing thematic analysis techniques, these studies identify patterns in teachers' beliefs and cluster them into broader themes.…”

‘Walking in a Foreign and Unknown Landscape’: Studying the History of Mathematics in Initial Teacher Education

“…I have argued elsewhere (for example, Angier and Povey, 1999;Povey, 2002; that classrooms where equity concerns are taken seriously need to be places in which learners set up productive relationships with the process of coming to know. When learners come to see themselves as authoring their own knowledge and therefore as authoritative knowers, not only are they in a position to make considerable gains in understanding; they are also gaining democratic competences (Moreira, 2002) and the sense of themselves as agentic.…”