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Critical Mathematics Education

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education

Definition

Critical mathematics education can be characterized in terms of concerns: to address social exclusion and suppression, to work for social justice, to open new possibilities for students, and to address critically mathematics in all its forms and application.

Characteristics

Critical Education

Inspired by the students’ movement, a New Left, peace movements, feminism, and antiracism, critical education proliferated. A huge amount of literature became published, not least in Germany, and certainly the work of Paulo Freire was recognized as crucial for formulating radical educational approaches.

However, critical education was far from expressing any interest in mathematics. In fact, with reference to the Frankfurt School, mathematics was considered almost an obstruction to critical education. Thus, Habermas, Marcuse, and many others associated instrumental reason with, on the one hand, domination and, on the other hand, the rationality cultivated by natural science and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University, Aalborg, DK, Denmark

    Ole Skovsmose

Authors
  1. Ole Skovsmose
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ole Skovsmose .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Centre for Mathematics Education, London South Bank University, London, UK

    Stephen Lerman

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Bharath Sriraman

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Skovsmose, O. (2020). Critical Mathematics Education. In: Lerman, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15789-0_34

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