Mathematics education and democracy

Adriana Cesar de Mattos (Unesp - Rio Claro, Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Marcelo Salles Batarce (UEMS, Dourado, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil) have written an article that was published online in ZDM on Wednesday. This article is about Mathematics education and democracy, and here is a copy of the abstract:

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between mathematics education and the notions of education for all/democracy. In order to proceed with our analysis, we present Marx’s concept of commodity and Jean Baudrillard’s concept of sign value as a theoretical reference in the discussion of how knowledge has become a universal need in today’s society and ideology. After, we engage in showing mathematics education’s historical and epistemological grip to this ideology. We claim that mathematics education appears in the time period that English becomes an international language and the notion of international seems to be a key constructor in the constitution of that ideology. Here, we draw from Derrida’s famous saying that “there is nothing beyond the text”. We conclude that a critique to modern society and education has been developed from an idealistic concept of democracy.