Laying the Foundations

Abstract

In this chapter we begin to focus on a central question of this book: how mathematics acquires meanings and how these are generated from various perspectives arising from different lived-in cultures. These meanings are multiply-derived and correspondingly diverse: yet in their diversity as well as in their commonalities, we hope to throw light on the fundamental issues raised in the previous chapter, and to open a window on what it is to mean mathematically. Our project will be to problematise some of the standard categories and dichotomies which have characterised thinking in the field of mathematics education: our methodology will involve charting a course between a range of empirical findings (our own and others’) and the corpus of literature which has evolved within the academic community. We will lay the foundation for understanding the construction of mathematical meanings, an understanding which we hope to deepen as the book unfolds.