Banality of mathematical expertise

• Autor(a) principal: Skovsmose, Ole [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11858-020-01168-4; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/198974
• topic: Banality of mathematical expertise; Critical mathematics education; Ethics; Philosophy of mathematics; Role model

Practices within research mathematics can and do serve as models for mathematics education. However, typically such inspirations impose a devastating narrowness in relation to reflections on mathematics. This narrowness I refer to as the “banality of mathematical expertise”. Reflections on mathematics can be expressed through a philosophy of mathematics that goes beyond the traditional emphasis on ontological and epistemological dimensions, to become four-dimensional by also addressing social and ethical issues. Many working philosophies of mathematics operate within a narrow scope of reflections, seemingly located within an ethical vacuum. The consequence is a cultivation of a banality, manifest in many university studies in mathematics as well as in dominant research paradigms in mathematics. This constitutes a serious limitation in providing models for mathematics education. By contrast, there exist examples of practices of mathematics education that demonstrate a richness of reflections on mathematics. Accordingly, I address the extent to which such practices of critical mathematics education could serve as models for research mathematics and mathematics education at the university level.