08-15-2026, 09:06 AM
? Breaking Images: Iconoclastic Analyses of Mathematics and its Education
Editors: Brian Greer, David Kollosche & Ole Skovsmose
Publication date: 11 December 2024
Publisher:Open Book Publishers
Series:Studies on Mathematics Education and Society, Vol. 2
Length: 600 pages
Open Access: Available to read and download online.
Review
Breaking Images challenges the familiar image of mathematics as a timeless, culturally neutral collection of objective truths. Instead, its twenty-one essays approach mathematics as a human activity embedded in historical, cultural, educational, social, and political contexts. The contributors examine how mathematical knowledge develops, how it acquires authority, and how mathematical practices can influence society. Topics range from formalism, intuition and the philosophy of mathematics to Ramanujan, ethnomathematics and the relationship between mathematics and art. A recurring theme is that although mathematics is remarkably successful at modelling physical systems and solving technical problems, applying mathematical models to complex human and social problems is far less straightforward.
A major part of the collection focuses on mathematics education. Chapters question conventional classroom practices and examine how globalization, standardized assessment, cultural assumptions and institutional structures shape what counts as legitimate mathematical knowledge. Other contributions investigate race and mathematics education, gender, ethnomathematical approaches, and children's development of mathematical understanding. Rather than simply proposing better techniques for teaching formulas and procedures, the volume asks deeper questions: Why do we teach mathematics? Whose mathematics is represented? What kind of citizens does mathematics education help produce? In this sense, the book treats mathematics education as part of society rather than as an isolated academic discipline.
The result is less a conventional mathematics textbook than a broad philosophical and critical examination of mathematics itself. Its deliberately “iconoclastic” perspective attempts to break established images of mathematics as completely detached from human values and circumstances. Readers looking for theorems and problem-solving techniques will find relatively little of that; readers interested in the philosophy, sociology, history and teaching of mathematics will find a substantial collection of perspectives that invite debate. It is particularly relevant to mathematicians, mathematics teachers and teacher educators who want to reconsider not merely how mathematics should be taught, but what mathematics is, what purposes it serves, and what responsibilities accompany its use.
Key takeaways
BOOK [FREE AS A PDF]
Editors: Brian Greer, David Kollosche & Ole Skovsmose
Publication date: 11 December 2024
Publisher:Open Book Publishers
Series:Studies on Mathematics Education and Society, Vol. 2
Length: 600 pages
Open Access: Available to read and download online.
Review
Breaking Images challenges the familiar image of mathematics as a timeless, culturally neutral collection of objective truths. Instead, its twenty-one essays approach mathematics as a human activity embedded in historical, cultural, educational, social, and political contexts. The contributors examine how mathematical knowledge develops, how it acquires authority, and how mathematical practices can influence society. Topics range from formalism, intuition and the philosophy of mathematics to Ramanujan, ethnomathematics and the relationship between mathematics and art. A recurring theme is that although mathematics is remarkably successful at modelling physical systems and solving technical problems, applying mathematical models to complex human and social problems is far less straightforward.
A major part of the collection focuses on mathematics education. Chapters question conventional classroom practices and examine how globalization, standardized assessment, cultural assumptions and institutional structures shape what counts as legitimate mathematical knowledge. Other contributions investigate race and mathematics education, gender, ethnomathematical approaches, and children's development of mathematical understanding. Rather than simply proposing better techniques for teaching formulas and procedures, the volume asks deeper questions: Why do we teach mathematics? Whose mathematics is represented? What kind of citizens does mathematics education help produce? In this sense, the book treats mathematics education as part of society rather than as an isolated academic discipline.
The result is less a conventional mathematics textbook than a broad philosophical and critical examination of mathematics itself. Its deliberately “iconoclastic” perspective attempts to break established images of mathematics as completely detached from human values and circumstances. Readers looking for theorems and problem-solving techniques will find relatively little of that; readers interested in the philosophy, sociology, history and teaching of mathematics will find a substantial collection of perspectives that invite debate. It is particularly relevant to mathematicians, mathematics teachers and teacher educators who want to reconsider not merely how mathematics should be taught, but what mathematics is, what purposes it serves, and what responsibilities accompany its use.
Key takeaways
- Mathematics is a human activity: its development and use take place within cultural, historical and social environments.
- Mathematics is not automatically neutral: mathematical practices and models can interact with political, institutional and social structures.
- Mathematics education deserves critical examination: standardized teaching and assessment can obscure cultural differences and alternative mathematical perspectives.
- The book broadens the central question: instead of asking only “How should we teach mathematics?”, it asks “What kind of mathematics—and mathematics education—does society need?”
BOOK [FREE AS A PDF]
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