Page 428 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

33 “What Is Ours and What Is Not Ours?” 403

promote a decontextualised nature of mathematics? I argue that whilst conventional
logics help generate “objective” mathematical expressions, alternative inclusive
logics (e.g., poetic, narrative, metaphoric and dialectical) help understand those
mathematical expressions through “earthly embodied language,” which represents
a radical shift from an exclusively disembodied objectivist epistemology to an
eclectic and embodied epistemology that allows us to cultivate relational, interde-
pendent and inclusive pedagogical visions for mathematics (Jardine 1994). With
alternative inclusive logics at centre stage, we can challenge the rigid unidimen-
sionality of conventional logics that best serve the legacy of cold, disembodied and
technicist rationality, thereby cultivating inclusive rationalities that are capable of
explaining the complex and mutual relationship between official mathematics and
mathematics situated in people’s practices.
Altering Mimetic and Transmissionist Pedagogies

Dear Dr. Authority, whilst undertaking my first master’s studies in 1996/1997, I
came to know about a similar foundation of mathematics education that you suggest
incorporating in our mathematics teacher education program. My experience sug-
gests that perspectives associated with such foundationalism seem to promote
mimetic and transmissionist pedagogies. You may argue here that transmissionism
is an essential pedagogy for teachers to transmit mathematical knowledge in a
rigorous way, ascertaining its exact reproduction (i.e., miming). However, guided
by inclusive metaphors of teaching as facilitating and learning as constructing
(Sfard 1998), I am going to critique key features of transmissionist and mimetic
pedagogies arising from exclusive foundationalism.

Dear Dr. Authority, I envisage that an exclusive foundationalist view is not helpful
for breaking the vicious circle of mimetic and transmissionist pedagogies. Does
behaviourism (your psychological aspect of the foundation) not treat students as
animals ready to be fed, as most of the behaviouristic experiments have been done