Abstract
Evidence is produced for the failure of the school mathematics curriculum, around the world, to facilitate the solution of simple arithmetic problems in a variety of work, leisure and other daily activities. A survey of research performed from the perspective of ethnomathematics into this problem reveals the absence of a generalisable theory to account for the disjuncture between school mathematics and out-of-school problem solving situations. It is argued that the forging of a link between pedagogical prescription and political analysis is a prerequisite for reconstructing the mathematics curriculum so as to address this disjuncture. Four domains in which mathematical knowledge is constructed and deployed are described. The paper concludes by identifying the need to search for mechanisms in the curriculum process which will provide space for the necessary contributions of specialist sets of actors within these domains, while at the same time tying such activities to a common accountability.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
BaumanZ.: 1987,Legislators and Interpreters, Polity Press, Cambridge.
Bennell, P. and Swainson, N.: 1990,Education and the New Right in South Africa, Occasional Paper, Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand.
BernsteinB.: 1985, ‘On pedagogic discourse’, in J. G.Richardson (ed.),Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, Greenwood Press, Westpoint.
Bernstein, B.: 1988, ‘On pedagogic discourse revised’,CORE 12(1).
CarraherT. N., CarraherD. W. and SchliemannA. D.: 1985, ‘Mathematics in the streets and in the schools’,British Journal of Development Psychology 3, 21–29.
CarraherT. N., SchliemannA. D. and CarraherD. W.: 1988, ‘Mathematical concepts in everyday life’, in G.Saxe and M.Gearhart (eds.),Children's Mathematics, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
D'AmbrosioU.: 1985, ‘Ethnomathematics and its place in the history and pedagogy of mathematics’,For the Learning of Mathematics 5(1), 44–48.
de la Rocha, O.: 1985, ‘The reorganisation of arithmetic practice in the kitchen’, in J. Lave (ed.), The Social Organization of Knowledge and Practice: A Symposium.Anthropology and Education Quarterly 16, 193–198.
DostalE.: 1989,The Long-Term Future of Education in South Africa, Occasional Paper No. 15, Institute for Futures Research, Stellenbosch.
Dowling, P.: 1988, ‘The contextualisation of mathematics: Towards a theoretical map’, unpublished.
Evans, J.: 1988, ‘Contexts and performance in numerical activity among adults’.Proceedings of the Twelfth Conference on the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Veszprem, Hungary, pp. 296–303.
FashehM.: 1982, ‘Mathematics, culture and authority’,For the Learning of Mathematics 3(2), 2–8.
FashehM.: 1989, ‘Mathematics in a social context: Math within education as praxis versus within education as hegemony’, in KeitelC. (ed.),Mathematics, Education and Society UNESCO, Paris, pp. 84–86.
FoucaultM.: 1980,Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, Pantheon Books, New York.
FoucaultM.: 1981, ‘The order of discourse’, in R.Young (ed.),Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, Routledge and Kegan Paul, Boston.
GayJ. and ColeM.: 1967,The New Mathematics and an Old Culture, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Gerdes, P.: 1985a, ‘On culture, mathematics and curriculum development in Mozambique’,Paper presented to the Seminar on Mathematics and Culture, Bergen, 26–28 September.
GerdesP.: 1985b, ‘Conditions and strategies for emancipatory mathematics education in underdeveloped countries’,For the Learning of Mathematics 5(1), 15–20.
GerdesP.: 1988, ‘On possible uses of traditional Angolan sand drawings in the mathematics classroom’,Educational Studies in Mathematics 19, 3–22.
GramsciA.: 1971,Selections from Prison Notebooks, Lawrence and Wishart, London.
HartshorneK.: 1987, ‘Private sector involvement in education 1960–86, in P.Randall (ed.),Addressing Educational Crisis and Change: Relevant Private Sector Initiatives, Centre for Continuing Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Hendriques, J., Hollway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C., and Walkerdine, V. (eds.),Changing the Subject, Methuen, London.
HowsonG. and WilsonB.: 1986,School Mathematics in the 1990s, CUP, Cambridge.
Kallaway, P.: 1988, ‘Privatization as an aspect of education policies of the new right: A critical signpost for understanding shifts in educational policy in South Africa during the eighties?’, in S. Abrahams (ed.),Education in the Eighties: Proceedings of the Kenton-at-Woodstock Conference, 28–31 October, University of Cape Town.
KeaneJ. (ed.): 1988,Civil Society and the State, Verso, London.
KoselleckR.: 1988,Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Lave, J.: 1985, ‘Introduction: Situationally specific practice’, in J. Lave (ed.), The Social Organization of Knowledge and Practice: A Symposium,Anthropology and Education Quarterly 16, 171–176.
LaveJ.: 1986, ‘The values of quantification’, in J.Law (ed.),Power, Action and Belief, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
LaveJ.: 1988,Cognition in Practice, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Leatt, J.: 1988, Quoted inBusiness Day, 2 August.
MaierE.: 1980, ‘Folk Mathematics’,Mathematics Teaching 93, 21–23.
Mellin-OlsenS.: 1987,The Politics of Mathematics Education, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
MullerJ. and CloeteN.: 1987, ‘The white hands: Academic social scientists, engagement and struggle in South Africa’,Social Epistemology 1(2), 141–154.
Murtaugh, M.: 1985, ‘The practice of arithmetic by American grocery shoppers’, in J. Lave (ed.), The Social Organization of Knowledge and Practice: A Symposium.Anthropology and Education Quarterly 16, 186–192.
Potter, C. S.: forthcoming,An Analytical Case Study of a Pre-University Project, Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
RogoffB. and LaveJ. (eds.): 1984,Everyday Cognition: Its Development in Social Context, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
RortyR.: 1989,Contingency, Irony and Solidarity, CUP, Cambridge.
SAIIR. (South African Institute of Race Relations): 1988/89,Race Relations Survey, Johannesburg.
SaulJ. S. (ed.): 1985,A Different Road: The Transition to Socialism in Mozambique, Monthly Review Press, New York.
Scribner, S.: 1985, ‘Knowledge at work’, in J. Lave (ed.), The Social Organization of Knowledge and Practice: A Symposium,Anthropology and Education Quarterly 16, 199–266.
SmitA.: 1990, ‘A race between education and disaster’,Mining Survey 2, Chamber of Mines, Johannesburg.
SpradberryJ.: 1976, ‘Conservative pupils? Pupil resistance to curriculum innovation in mathematics’, in G.Whitty and M. F. D.Young (eds.),Explorations in the Politics of School Knowledge, Nafferton, Driffield.
Swainson, N.: 1989, ‘Corporate intervention in education and training: South Africa: 1976–1988’,Paper presented at the RESA Conference on Economic Change, Social Conflict and Education in Contemporary South Africa, Grantham, UK.
Taylor, N. C.: 1986, ‘Why Johnnie can't read maths’,Proceedings of the Eighth National Congress of the Mathematical Association of South Africa, University of Stellenbosch.
Taylor, N., Muller, J., Cloete, N. and Narsing Y.: 1989, ‘The first and last interpreters’,Paper presented to the Kenton-at-Magoebaskloof Conference, 27–30 October, University of the North.
Taylor, N.: 1990, ‘Making sense of children making sense: Imagery, educational television and mathematical knowledge’, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
WalkerdineV.: 1982, ‘From context to text: A psychosemiotic approach to abstract thought’, in M.Beveridge (ed.),Children Thinking Through Language, Edward Arnold, London.
WalkerdineV.: 1984, ‘Developmental psychology and the child-centred pedagogy: The insertion of Piaget into early education’, in J.Hendriques et al. (eds.),Changing the Subject, Methuen, London.
WalkerdineV.: 1988,The Mastery of Reason, Routledge, London.
WexlerP.: 1982, ‘Structure, text and subject: A critical sociology of school knowledge’, in M. W.Apple (ed.),Cultural and Economic Reproduction in Education, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Taylor, N. Independence and interdependence: Analytical vectors for defining the mathematics curriculum of schools in a democratic society. Educ Stud Math 22, 107–123 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00555719
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00555719