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Mathematics Education as Praying Wheel: How Adults Avoid Mathematics by Pushing It onto Children

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The Disorder of Mathematics Education

Abstract

Why is mathematics education endorsed even by people who know little mathematics and almost never use it? We explore this question with reference to a theoretical framework inspired by anthropology and psychoanalysis. Our answer is that participation in mathematics education generates ambivalence towards mathematics, where it is at the same time loved and feared. The response to this ambivalence is to endorse mathematics per proxy, by sending children to school where they put up a “show” of mathematics-love. By means of a psychological mechanism involving what we will call the naïve observer this arrangement allows people to both seem to love mathematics and at the same time keep it at arm’s length.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Sverker Lundin

  2. Department of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Ditte Storck Christensen

Authors
  1. Sverker Lundin
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  2. Ditte Storck Christensen
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Correspondence to Sverker Lundin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Hauke Straehler-Pohl

  2. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Nina Bohlmann

  3. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Alexandre Pais

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Lundin, S., Christensen, D.S. (2017). Mathematics Education as Praying Wheel: How Adults Avoid Mathematics by Pushing It onto Children. In: Straehler-Pohl, H., Bohlmann, N., Pais, A. (eds) The Disorder of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34006-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34006-7_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-34005-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-34006-7

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