A life for Aprile: Social Justice as a Search of/for the Soul - A Response to Eric Gutstein

Citation

Swanson DM (2008) A life for Aprile: Social Justice as a Search of/for the Soul - A Response to Eric Gutstein. In: de Freitas E & Nolan K (eds.) Opening the research text: critical Insights and in(ter)ventions into mathematics education. Mathematics Education Library, 46. New York: Springer, pp. 213-219. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-75464-2_8

Abstract
First paragraph: School mathematics is a discourse of power! The prevalent, but false, understanding of mathematics is one of an objective discourse that affords positions of political "neutrality" within its discursive parameters. This understanding is one which gives license to the use of mathematics as an instrument of capitalist relations of production and, in doing so, advances the cause of neo-liberalism globally. In other words, "neutrality" and "objectivity" serve as a cover for neoliberal and neocolonial discourses. It doesn't take much to notice that standard (Westernized) school mathematics curricula are underpinned by particular value systems (Bishop, 2000; 2001) that reify individualistic and civil libertarianism, and underscore the advancement of technocentric, progressivist, and capitalist tenets (see Bishop, 1990).