Overcoming Mathematical Anthropocentrism in Mathematics Education

• In Event: Mathematics as a Cultural and Community Activity

Abstract

Mathematics education—as a domain—predominantly manifests a mathematical anthropocentric perspective that is anachronistic in lieu of recent scientific findings regarding the mathematical abilities of many non-human entities, significantly limiting both (1) what counts as legitimate mathematics, and (2) the work of mathematics education. This paper introduces the concept of mathematical anthropocentrism (centering human mathematics over the mathematics of the non-human Other), develops a theoretical framework categorizing the significant manifestations of mathematical anthropocentrism in the mathematics education literature, explores some consequences of such human-centered mathematical perspectives, and suggests some benefits post-anthropocentric mathematical perspectives might hold for the work of mathematics education.

Author

• Thomas E. Ricks, Louisiana State University