The spaces of mathematics
dynamic encounters between local and universal
pp. 135-152
in: Paul Smeyers, Marc Depaepe, Edwin Keiner (eds), Educational research, Berlin, Springer, 2013Abstract
The chapter by Karen François, Kathleen Coessens and Jean Paul Van Bendegem turns to "The Spaces of Mathematics: Dynamic Encounters Between Local and Universal' (Chap. 10). No doubt mathematics is the last place (or face?) to look for situatedness, that is, to show that mathematics too is linked to places, to people, to instruments and to practices. Yet over the past years, evidence has been accumulating that mathematics too needs a context in order to be understood. This contextuality ranges from the high-level, abstract mathematical discourse that requires a strong social closure in terms of experts to the educational context where mathematical thinking and doing is transmitted including the hidden philosophical and universal claims and to the ethno-mathematical context where mathematics is supposed to integrate into society rather than the other way around. In short, universality requires some very special contextual conditions to demonstrate its full force (at least so it is claimed).
