Abstract
When we count, we have to decide what counts and what does not count. Thus, counting is a political act. Certain language repertoires are necessary to convey the ideas and perhaps even to perform counting actions. At the same time, the language used to describe these ideas and enact the processes shapes the way we conceptualize them. Our interest in the experience of counting includes the way counting and its communication position people. In this chapter we identify how micro-political moves are manifested in language and counting situations, including reciting numbers, counting things present and not, and subordinating counting to another goal. In our analysis, we look for language strategies that enable the process of deciding what to (not) count as the process of establishing boundaries or categories, and we consider how these processes work as political acts.
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Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, with a grant entitled “Students’ language repertoires for investigating mathematics.” Opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed here are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of the granting body.
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Andersson, A., Wagner, D. (2018). The Micro-Politics of Counting. In: Bartell, T. (eds) Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education. Research in Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_12
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