X Equals 2, Solve for Nation: Exploring the Banal Reproduction of Nationalism in Mathematics Textbooks

• In Event: 16.056 - Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: 16.056-11 - Text(s) Matter(s): How Text Choices Can Broaden or Constrain Student Learning

Abstract

This paper explores the reproduction of banal nationalism (Billig, 1995) as it manifests itself across a pair of mathematics textbooks. Using the work of Michael Billig and James Gee, I argue that mathematics, despite being popularly positioned as disinterested in socio-political representations, frequently uses visual depictions (flagging) and subtle linguistic techniques (deixis) to mark off the boundaries of the imagined community. Specifically, I argue that the textbooks use carefully chosen statistical data, nationally oriented mathematical problems and selective visual representations to make the case that not only is the national context real but inclusive of particular “wes” (and consequently exclusive of “thems”) and does so in a rather uncritical fashion.

Author

• Bryan Smith, University of Ottawa