Critical Mathematics Education

Ole Skovsmose has a special interest in critical mathematics education. He has investigated the notions of landscape of investigation, formatting power of mathematics, mathematics in action, students’ foregrounds, and banality of mathematical expertise. He has been professor at the Department of Education, Learning and Philosophy (now Department of Culture and Learning), Aalborg University, Denmark. He is now retired and lives most of his time in Brazil. PhD 1982 from the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, and Dr. Scient 1995 from Aalborg University.

“Critical Mathematics Education by Ole Skovsmose (2023) is presenting an overview of his life‘s work as the intellectual father of the Critical Mathematics Education (CME) Paradigm. … All principles are illustrated throughout the book in 18 chapters. Articles are grouped in four parts, which is only a suggestion to guide you through the chapters as they can be read in any order one might prefer. ... The CME book is appropriate to all mathematics teachers (of all levels).” (Karen François, Philosophia Mathematica, Vol. 32 (1), February, 2024)“I have been privileged to share some of Ole Skovsmose’s journey with him. I admired his first English language publications on critical mathematics education, and we have been in touch for almost forty years. … His enterprise is bigger than any one of us and I am delighted be in the position to introduce, via review, this very important, special and definitive philosophy of critical mathematics education.” (Paul Ernest, Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, Issue 41, February 2024)“Ole Skovsmose offers us new and radical ways of reading and writing about mathematics education. … The book will inform your current research and practice. Whether such research is reflecting on personal professional practice or developing new research projects, any chapter will offer you new and interesting directions for future travel and useful reading to support this travel. Perhaps most importantly, the book defines a field. That field, that terrain, is critical mathematics education.” (Anthony Cotton, Educational Studies in Mathematics, September 20, 2023)

• Part I: Learning and Landscapes.- Chapter 1. Concerns and Hopes.- Chapter 2. Landscapes and Racism.- Chapter 3. Democracy and Erosions.- Chapter 4. Sustainability and Risks.- Chapter 5. To Learn or Not to Learn?.- Part II: Crises and Formatting.- Chapter 6. Crisis and Critique.- Chapter 7. Banality of Mathematical Expertise.- Chapter 8. Mathematics and Ethics.- Chapter 9. Mathematics and Crises.- Chapter 10. Picturing or Formatting?.- Part III: Critique and Dialogue.- Chapter 11. Critique of Mathematics.- Chapter 12. Critique of Critique.- Chapter 13. Initial Formulations of Critical Mathematics Education.- Chapter 14. A Dialogic Theory of Learning Mathematics.- Part IV: Width and Depth.- Chapter 15. All Students.- Chapter 16. Beyond Stereotypes.- Chapter 17. Social Theorising and the Formatting Power of Mathematics.- Chapter 18. A Philosophy of Critical Mathematics Education.