Abstract
Three sets of nomadic epistemological categories (Deleuze and Guattari) that coexist with other theoretical frameworks of mathematics education discourse and practice are used to suggest an approach to changing ourselves as mathematics educators through the ways that we think and act. The argument is that these reconceptualizing processes can change our worlds of possibility for mathematics education while allowing coexistence with more mainstream programs of research and practice: Arendt’s work, labor and action; Pitt’s youth leadership, voice and participation; and McElheny’s architectural, scientific, and artistic models. Such epistemological categories establish topologies, reconstructing subjectivities in the process—a tactic of alterglobal social movements that potentially politicize mathematics education: we change ourselves to change the world. Psychoanalytic responses to the terror of change, and the need to address the legacies of mathematics as a component of colonialism, are considered as components of broader social change.
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Notes
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This might be taken as a self-mocking tone: who among us is so self-important as a mathematics educator to imagine that our work might have such a significant impact? On the other hand, how would it change the nature of our field if we took our work so seriously and thought about the potential to make an impact on such important crises as refugee migration, climate disasters, and so on, and worked to make this a reality?
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Appelbaum, P. (2018). How to Be a Political Social Change Mathematics Education Activist. In: Jurdak, M., Vithal, R. (eds) Sociopolitical Dimensions of Mathematics Education. ICME-13 Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72610-6_4
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