This survey provides a brief and selective overview of research in the philosophy of mathematics education. It asks what makes up the philosophy of mathematics education, what it means, what questions it asks and answers, and what is its overall importance and use? It provides overviews of critical mathematics education, and the most relevant modern movements in the philosophy of mathematics. A case study is provided of an emerging research tradition in one country. This is the Hermeneutic strand of research in the philosophy of mathematics education in Brazil. This illustrates one orientation towards research inquiry in the philosophy of mathematics education. It is part of a broader practice of ‘philosophical archaeology’: the uncovering of hidden assumptions and buried ideologies within the concepts and methods of research and practice in mathematics education. An extensive bibliography is also included.

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The Philosophy of Mathematics Education

Critical Race Theory and Education: History, Theory, and Implications

Empowerment Education is proposed as an effective health education and prevention model that promotes health in all personal and social arenas. The model suggests that participation of people in group action and dialogue efforts directed at community targets enhances control and beliefs in ability to change people's own lives. The article is divided into three parts: a literature review demonstrating that powerlessness is linked to disease, and conversely, empowerment linked to health: an exposition of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's empowering education theory with a comparison to traditional health education; and a case study of an empowering education substance abuse prevention project. The Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP) Program is a University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Emergency Center, and community and school-based prevention project for adolescents. The case study will present ASAP's theoretical underpinnings and social practice, evaluation results, preliminary understandings of the stages for an empowering process, and future questions for practitioners interested in this approach. Empowerment education with its emphasis on organizing is recommended to be integrated into other prevention strategies of health promotion, disease prevention, and health policy.

Empowerment Education: Freire's Ideas Adapted to Health Education:

This article reports on a 2-year study about teaching and learning mathematics for social justice in an urban, Latino classroom and about the role of an NCTM Standardsbased curriculum. I was the teacher in the study and moved with the class from seventh to eighth grade. Using qualitative, practitioner-research methodology, I learned that students began to read the world (understand complex issues involving justice and equity) using mathematics, to develop mathematical power, and to change their orientation toward mathematics. A series of real-world projects was fundamental to this change, but the Standards-based curriculum was also important; such curricula can theoretically promote equity, but certain conditions may need to exist. Social justice pedagogy broadens the concept of equity work in mathematics classrooms and may help promote a more just society.

http://www.radicalmath.org/docs/2003JRME.pdf?origin=publication_detail

Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Social Justice in an Urban, Latino School

Social Constructivism as a Philosophy of Mathematics

Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education

Paulo Freire's critical education theory is “re-invented” in the context of a mathematics curriculum for urban working-class adults. The problems Freire poses for teachers in that context are explo...

Critical Mathematics Education: An Application of Paulo Freire's Epistemology:

Toward liberatory mathematics: Paulo Freire’s epistemology and ethnomathematics

Positioning oneself in mathematics education research

The “measure” of this article is a bit different from most—there are almost as many words in the notes as in the body of the text. Notes are a significant part of my writing, both in terms of recognizing the connections and complexities among issues, trying to capture the richness of interdisciplinary teaching, and in terms of strengthening our struggles by (when relevant) referring to each other's work so that our individual work becomes understood as part of collective work to move mathematics education in the direction of the public interest. A quote I love that I often start my talks with, after saying how I talk in parentheses, although eventually closing most of them, is from a Hmong saying that translates “to speak of all kinds of things.” It is often used at the beginning of an oral narrative as a way of reminding listeners that the world is full of things that may not seem to be connected but actually are; that no event occurs in isolation; that you can miss a lot by sticking to the poi...

/pdf/which-measures-count-for-the-public-interest-46wqy0w3la.pdf

Marilyn Frankenstein

Papers

Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education

Critical Mathematics Education: An Application of Paulo Freire's Epistemology:

Toward liberatory mathematics: Paulo Freire’s epistemology and ethnomathematics

Positioning oneself in mathematics education research

Which Measures Count for the Public Interest