Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Authority and Mathematics Education

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education

  • 142 Accesses

Definition

The nature and role of authority relations in mathematics education.

Characteristics

The investigation of authority enters into mathematics education research by way of two main arguments. The first is that to the extent sociology, anthropology, and politics are relevant to understanding mathematics education (e.g. Skovsmose 1994; Dowling 1998; Lerman 2000), authority must be relevant as well since it is a central construct in all those attendant fields; indeed, any treatment of power, hierarchy, social regulation, and social relations must refer to the idea of authority in some way (see Krieger 1973 for a broad discussion).

The second argument refers to mathematics per se. It is that the perception of mathematics as universal, certain, and final gives the discipline itself an authoritarian character. Whether or not authority can be attributed to mathematics, strictly speaking, owing to this perceptionof the subject, authority may be transferred to those considered...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Amit M, Fried MN (2005) Authority and authority relations in mathematics education: A View from an 8th grade classroom. Educ Stud Math 58:145–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benne KD (1970) Authority in education. Harv Educ Rev 40:385–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boaler J (2003) Studying and capturing the complexity of practice–The case of the ‘dance of agency’. In: Pateman NA, Dougherty BJ, Zilliox JT (eds) Proceedings of the 27th annual conference of PME27 and PME-NA25, CRDG, vol 1. College of Education, Honolulu, pp 3–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowling P (1998) The sociology of mathematics education: mathematical myths/pedagogic texts. Falmer Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim E (1961) Moral education (trans: Wilson EK, Schnurer H). The Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Engle RA, Langer-Osuna J, McKinney de Royston M (2014) Toward a model of influence in persuasive discussions: Negotiating quality, authority, privilege, and access within a student-led argument. J Learn Sci 23(2):245–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ernest P (2008) Towards a semiotics of mathematical text (Part 3). Learn Math 28(3):42–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Fried MN, Amit M (2008) The co-development and interrelation of proof and authority: the case of Yana and Ronit. Math Educ Res J 20(3):54–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grabiner J (2004) Newton, Maclaurin, and the authority of mathematics. Am Math Mon 111(10):841–852

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harel G, Sowder L (1998) Students’ proof schemes: results from exploratory studies. In: Schoenfeld AH, Kaput J, Dubinsky E (eds) Research in collegiate mathematics III. American Mathematical Society, Providence, pp 234–282

    Google Scholar 

  • Herbel-Eisenmann BA, Wagner D (2010) Appraising lexical bundles in mathematics classroom discourse: obligation and choice. Educ Stud Math 75(1):43–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krieger L (1973) Authority. In: Wiener PP (ed) Dictionary of the history of ideas, vol I. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, pp 141–162

    Google Scholar 

  • Langer-Osuna JM (2016) The social construction of authority among peers and its implications for collaborative mathematics problem solving. Math Think Learn 18(2):107–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langer-Osuna JM (2017) Authority, identity, and collaborative mathematics. J Res Math Educ 48(3):237–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerman S (2000) The Social turn in mathematics education research. In: Boaler J (ed) Multiple perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning. Ablex Publishing, Westport, pp 19–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Skovsmose O (1994) Towards a critical philosophy of mathematics education. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vithal R (1999) Democracy and authority: a complementarity in mathematics education? ZDM 31(1):27–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber M (1947) The theory of social and economic organization (trans: Henderson AR, Parsons T). William Hodge ad Company Limited, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber K, Mejia-Ramos JP (2013) The influence of sources in the reading of mathematical text: A reply to Shanahan, Shanahan, and Misischia. J Lit Res 41(1):87–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welker R (1992) The teacher as expert: a theoretical and historical examination. SUNY Press, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • Waller W (1932) The sociology of teaching. Russell & Russell, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Program for Science & Technology Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Michael N. Fried

Authors
  1. Michael N. Fried
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael N. Fried .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. South Bank University Centre for Mathematics Education, London, United Kingdom

    Steve Lerman

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Science Teaching, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Ruhama Even

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Fried, M.N. (2018). Authority and Mathematics Education. In: Lerman, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77487-9_14-3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77487-9_14-3

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77487-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-77487-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation