Socially Response-able Mathematics Education: Implications of an Ethical Approach

Bill Atweh; Kate Brady

doi:10.12973/ejmste/75278

Full Text (PDF)

Bill Atweh ¹ ^* , Kate Brady ¹

More Detail

¹ Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA, AUSTRALIA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This paper discusses an approach to mathematics education based on the concept of ethical responsibility. It argues that an ethical approach to mathematics teaching lays the theoretical foundations for social justice concerns in the discipline. The paper develops a particular understanding of ethical responsibility based on the writings of Emanuel Levinas and discusses its implication for decision making on the curriculum and pedagogy in mathematics education. The paper argues that such an approach is consistent with a critical mathematics approach; however, it highlights the need to balance the concern about equity with that of quality. The paper concludes that this ethical stance, rather than being a normative criteria which dictates a particular line of action in different situations, it establishes a means to reflect on action and policy towards the achievement of more equitable access to high quality mathematics education.

Keywords

mathematics education
social perspective
social justice
ethics
pedagogy
curriculum

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 5, Issue 3, 2009, 267-276

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75278

Publication date: 22 Jan 2009

Article Views: 2953

Article Downloads: 1746

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

Atweh, B. (2007). What is this thing called social justice and what does it have to do with us in the context of globalisation? Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal (no 21).
Atweh, B. & Bland, D. (2005). Mathematics through/for understanding social life: Productive Pedagogy meets critical mathematics. In M. Goos, C. Kanes & R. Brown (Eds.), Mathematics Educaiton and Society Proceedings of the 4th International Mathematics Education and Society Conference. Brisbane: Mathematics Education Research Group of Australsia.
Atweh, B. & Keitel, C. (2007). Social justice in international collaborations. In B. Atweh, M. Borba, A Calabrese Barton, , N. Gough, , C. Keitel, C. Vistro-Yu & R. Vithal (Eds), Internationalisation and globalisation in mathematics and science education (pp. 95-112). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Bergo, B. (1999). Levinas between ethics and politics: For the beauty that adorns the earth. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Bernstein, B. (1971). Class, codes and control. London: Routledge and Paul.
Bishop, A. (1988). Mathematical enculturation: A cultural perspective on mathematics education. Dordrech: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Burton, L. (Ed.). (2003). Which Way Social Justice in Mathematics Education? London: Praeger.
Caygill, H. (2002). Levinas and the political. London: Routledge.
Cohen, R. (2001). Ethics, exegesis and philosophy: Interpretations after Levinas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, R. (2005). Levinas, Plato and ethical exegesis. In J. Bloechl & J. Kosky (Eds.), Levenas Studies: An annual review (Vol. 1). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
Coleman, J., Campbell, B., Hobson, C., McPartland, J., Mood, A., Winefeld, F. & York, R. (1966). Equity of educational opportunity report. Washington: US Government Printing Office.
Christie, P. (2005). Towards and ethics of engagement in education in global times. Australian Journal of Education, 49(3), 238-250.
Critchley, S. (1992). The ethics of deconstruction. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Critchley, S. (2002). Introduction. In S. Critchley & R. Bernasconi (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Levinas. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
D’Ambrosio, U. (1985). Sociocultural basis for mathematics education. In M. Carss (Ed.), Proceedings of the fifth international congress on mathematics education, (pp. 1-6). Boston: Birkhäuser.
D’Ambrosio, U. (1998). Literacy, matheracy and technoracy - The new trivium for the era of technology. Paper presented at the First international conference of Mathematics Education and Society. Nottingham: University of Nottingham
Dowling, P. (1997). The sociology of mathematics education: Mathematical myths, pedagogic texts. London: Falmer Press.
Down, B., Ditchburn, G. & Lee, L. (2007). Teachers’ ideological discourses and the enactment of citizenship education. Curriculum Prespectives. Draft accepted for publication.
Ernest, P. (1994) (Ed). Mathematics, education, and philosophy: an international perspective. London: Falmer Press.
Ernest, P. (2002). What is empowerment in mathematics education? In P. Valero and O. Skovsmose, (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rf International MES conference (pp. 1-12). Copenhagen: Centre for Research in Learning Mathematics.
Frankenstein, M. (1983). Critical Mathematics Education: An Application of Paulo Freire's Epistemology. Journal of Education, 165 (4), 315-339.
Fraser, N. & Honneth, A. (2003). Redistribution or Recognition? A Political-Philosophical Exchange. London: Verso:
Fullan, M. (2000). The three stories of educational reform. Phi Delta Kappa International. http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kful0004.htm accessed 29 September, 2008.
Furinghetti, F.; Kaisjer, S. & Vretblad, A. (2004) Proceedings of the 4th Summer University on the History and Epistemology in Mathematics Education & the HPM Satellite Meeting of ICME 10. Sweden: ICMI.
Gough, N. (2006). Quality imperialism in higher education: a global empire of the mind? Critical Perspectives on Communication, Cultural & Policy Studies, 25(2), 1-15.
Gutstein, E. (2006). Reading and Writing the World with Mathematics: Towards pedagogy for social justice. .New York: Routledge.
Habermas, J. (1987). Theory of communicative action: Volume two: Lifeworld and system. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers’ work and culture in the postmodern age. London: Cassell.
Hayes, D., Mills, M., Christie, H. & Lingard, B. (2005). Teachers and Schooling making a difference: Productive Pedagogies, Assessment and Performance. NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Jablonka, E. & Gellert, U. (2007). Mathematisation – Demathematisation. In U. Gellert & E. Jablonka (Eds.), Mathematisation and demathematisation: Social, philosophical and educational remifications (pp. 1-18). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Juter, K. (2006). Limits of functions as they developed through time and as students learn them today. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 8(4) pp. 407–431
Kuku, A. (1995). Mathematics education in Africa in relation to other countries. In R. Hunting, G. Fitzsimons, P. Clarkson, & A. Bishop (Eds.), Regional collaboration in mathematics education (pp. 403-423). Melbourne: Monash University.
Lerman, S. (2000). The social turn in mathematics education research. In J. Boaler (Ed.), International perspectives on mathematics education (pp. 19-44). Westport, CT: Ablex.
Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Levinas, E. (1997). Otherwise than being or beyond essence (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Luke, A. (1999). Why equity and social justice still matter, but differently. Paper prepared for Education Queensland online conference. Brisbane: Department of Education, Training and the Arts. http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/docs /onlineal.doc. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
Mellin-Olson, S. (1987). The politics of mathematics education (Vol. 4). Dordrech: Springer.
Newmann, F. & Associates (1996). Authentic achievement: Restructuring schools for intellectual quality. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Neyland, J. (2004). Rethinking Curriculum: An Ethical Perspective. In B. Barton, K. Irwin, M. Pfannkuch, & M. Thomas, (Eds.), Mathematics education is the South Pacific: Proceedings of the 25th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. University of Auckland: MERGA.
Noddings, N. (1993). Politicizing the mathematics classroom. In S. Restivo, J, Bendegem & R. Fischer (Eds.), Math wolds: Philosophical and social studies of mathematics and mathematics education. Albany: State University of New York.
Ortiz-Franco, L. & Flores, W. (2001). Sociocultural considerations and Latino mathematics achievement: A critical review. In B. Atweh, H. Forgasz & B. Nebres (Eds), Sociocultural research on mathematics education: An international perspective (233-253. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Puka, B. (2005). Teaching ethical excellence: Artful responseability, creative integrity, character opus. Liberal Education, 91(3), 22-25
Powell, P. & Frankenstein, M. (1997). Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in mathematics education. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study. (2001). Final report. Volume 1 & 2. Brisbane: The University of Queensland.
Roth, W. R. (2007). Solidarity and the ethics of collaborative Research. In S. Ritchie (Ed.), Research collaboration: Relationships and Praxis (pp. 27-42). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Secada, W. (1989). Equity in Education. Philadelphia: Falmer.
Seidman, S. (1998). Contested knowledge: Social theory in the postmodern era (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc.
Skovsmose, O. (1998). Linking mathematics education and democracy: Citizenship, mathematical archaeology, mathemacy and deliberative interaction. ZDM 30(6), pp. 195-203.
Skovsmose, O. (1994). Towards a philosophy of critical mathematics education. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Taylor, C. (1989). The moral topography of the self. In S.B. Messer, L.A. Sass & R.L. Woolfolk (Eds.), Hermeneutics and Psychological Theory: Interpretive Perspectives on Personality, Psychotherapy and Psychopathology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Woodrow, D. (2003). Mathematics, mathematics education and economic conditions. In A.J. Bishop, M.A. Clements, C. Keitel, J. Kilpatrick, and F.K.S. Leung (Eds.), Second International Handbook of Mathematics Education(9-30). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Vithal, R. & Skovsmose, O. (1997). The end of innocence: A critique of ”ethnomathematics”. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 34, 131-157.
Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the Politics of Difference. NJ: Princeton University.

How to cite this article

APA

Atweh, B., & Brady, K. (2009). Socially Response-able Mathematics Education: Implications of an Ethical Approach. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 5(3), 267-276. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75278

Vancouver

Atweh B, Brady K. Socially Response-able Mathematics Education: Implications of an Ethical Approach. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2009;5(3):267-76. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75278

AMA

Atweh B, Brady K. Socially Response-able Mathematics Education: Implications of an Ethical Approach. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2009;5(3), 267-276. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75278

Chicago

Atweh, Bill, and Kate Brady. "Socially Response-able Mathematics Education: Implications of an Ethical Approach". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2009 5 no. 3 (2009): 267-276. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75278

Harvard

Atweh, B., and Brady, K. (2009). Socially Response-able Mathematics Education: Implications of an Ethical Approach. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 5(3), pp. 267-276. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75278

MLA

Atweh, Bill et al. "Socially Response-able Mathematics Education: Implications of an Ethical Approach". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 5, no. 3, 2009, pp. 267-276. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75278