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Mathematics education in the neoliberal and corporate curriculum: the case of Brazilian agricultural high schools

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Abstract

The pedagogical principle learning by research guides the current curriculum in agricultural high schools in Brazil. A problematization of the principle shows how (1) it feeds into current neoliberal and corporate agendas in the education sector, and (2) it associates mathematical formalism and abstraction as necessary conditions for the production and use of biotechnology. Data consists of official national and institutional policy documents, as well as interviews conducted with nine former students, along with their school notebooks and tests. The theoretical and methodological framework draws on the work of Michel Foucault. It is argued that neoliberal market values are embedded in the mathematics education, through the articulation of abstract and formal reasoning with techno-scientific knowledge, for the purpose of competitive production. The learning by research principle shapes students’ subjectivities to desire becoming techno-scientificized individuals. The ethical question of the subordination of the value of mathematics education to a neoliberal, predominantly marketized logic is raised as a challenge to the role of mathematics in contemporary cultures.

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Notes

  1. For ethical reasons, we use the name Company X to refer to a multinational company that is present in most of the Western countries and has traded its products on the world agricultural market since the 1990s (Buainain et al., 2014).

  2. This refers to the first term of president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, in the years 2004–2008.

  3. In Rio Grande do Sul (RS), the Southernmost state of Brazil, the IFs are called IFRS. The study reported here was developed in the IFRS situated in the small town of Sertão. Therefore, it will be called IFRS-Sertão (Toledo, 2017).

  4. Broadly discussed in the last two decades, we adhere to a meaning of neoliberalism as “the new political, economic, and social arrangements within society that emphasize market relations, re-tasking the role of the state, and individual responsibility.” It can be seen as “an extension of competitive markets into all areas of life” (Springer, Birch, & Macleavy, 2017, p. 2). Furthermore, we align with Brown (2015, p. 17) who defines neoliberalism as a “form of reason that configures all aspects of existence in economic terms”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IFC, Rio do Sul, Brazil

    Neila de Toledo e Toledo

  2. Unisinos, São Leopoldo, Brazil

    Gelsa Knijnik

  3. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Paola Valero

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  1. Neila de Toledo e Toledo
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  2. Gelsa Knijnik
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  3. Paola Valero
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Correspondence to Gelsa Knijnik.

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de Toledo e Toledo, N., Knijnik, G. & Valero, P. Mathematics education in the neoliberal and corporate curriculum: the case of Brazilian agricultural high schools. Educ Stud Math 99, 73–87 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-018-9825-4

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