Abstract
In this chapter we shall first introduce a schema that describes strategies of representation in terms of whether representation is explicit or tacit and whether it is oriented in consonance or dissonance with dominant or expected patterns, in this case of social inequality. We shall then use this schema to describe the construction of gender and social class in school textbooks, giving some attention to the contexts of their use. We shall argue that addressing social inequalities demands explicit, dissonant strategies, referred to here as interrogation. However, by reflecting on a particular critical mathematics lesson apparently interrogating racial inequality, we conclude that interrogation itself is likely to lead to misrepresentation where the mathematical activity is foregrounded and mathematics is likely to lose out where it is not. Ultimately, we may be left with the choice of whether to do politics or to teach mathematics.
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- 1.
The original Guardian story has been removed, the copyright having expired. A version of the article appeared on p. 8 of the G2 section of The Guardian on 24th March 2010. The longer, original story is still available on The Economist website at http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/ian-jack/5-boys (last accessed 12th April 2011).
- 2.
It might be noted, in passing, that the wheelchair looks rather like a hospital machine, suggesting, perhaps, that the disability might be only temporary.
- 3.
Retrieved April 12, 2011.
- 4.
See www.carmiddleeast.com/article-1-1425-lebanon_motor_show_2010. Last accessed 12th April 2011.
- 5.
The textbooks were from the SMP numbered series and from the later SMP 11-16, both schemes were published by Cambridge University Press.
- 6.
Testing such propositions experimentally would be likely to generate ethical problems to the extent that one group of children would be working with materials that would be regarded as potentially harmful. A quasi-experimental design would be methodologically problematic in respect of controlling for teacher, student, school etc variation, though this would not render such a study valueless.
- 7.
GCSE figures for girls and boys available at http://www.bstubbs.co.uk/gender/fem-g.htm and http://www.bstubbs.co.uk/gender/male-g.htm (last accessed 29 January 2012). Despite girls achieving proportionately better grades at GCSE and at A level (until 2009) fewer girls take maths beyond GCSE. (Around 40:60 girls to boys take A level Maths and around 30:70 girls to boys take A level Further Maths.)
- 8.
In the 1998 book, the term ‘social activity theory’ was used; this was changed to SAM in the later book to avoid confusion with some Vygotskian work. The analysis that follows has been radically simplified in both theoretical and empirical terms in order to accommodate to the limitation on space. We feel that it nevertheless has some value in respect of understanding the relationship between mathematics education and social injustice.
- 9.
An interesting exception being chapters on probability, where entry into the esoteric was delayed very considerably (Dowling 1998).
- 10.
- 11.
Though there are exceptions, see the examples from TIMSS in Dowling 2007.
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Dowling, P., Burke, J. (2012). Shall We Do Politics or Learn Some Maths Today? Representing and Interrogating Social Inequality. In: Forgasz, H., Rivera, F. (eds) Towards Equity in Mathematics Education. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27702-3_8
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