Mathematics as Simulacra: Implications for a Critical Mathematics Education (original) (raw)

Mathematics education has failed to drag itself from the grips of humanist ideas about knowledge, in particular an a priori ontological status of mathematics. The postmodern re-inscriptions of truth, what is real, or what counts as real, have not impacted our ways of thinking with our core concern. In this paper I use Baudrillard to rip mathematics free of this anchor, to cast mathematics itself as a simulacra, references to a reference, constructions of a real that is not there. I argue that it is not until once freed of the weight of reality that considering a non-fascist mathematics education is possible. I extend the argument through the development of a possible four-point framework for thinking of a mathematics education for social justice, then discuss a small sample of research on adolescents‘ mathematical identity in order to begin to propose what might be a renewed direction for a research agenda toward a critical mathematics education.