PME-NA

Parasitic Bureaucracy Steals Mathematics Education Reform Resources: Toward Theory with Solutions

• In Event: Poster Session #1
  In Poster Session: Parasitic Bureaucracy Steals Mathematics Education Reform Resources: Toward Theory with Solutions

Description

United States’ mathematics education reform results over the last several decades are questionable, considering the enormous efforts in resource inputs invested. Where do all the resources go, if not to improvement of teachers’ teaching or students’ learning? Using constant comparative methods applied through a complex systems theoretical perspective across eight studies, this meta-analysis describes how certain bureaucratic systems use the promise of mathematics education reform to further entrench their own power. In particular, these bureaucracies trivialize rich human behavior by compression into reductionistic metrics (tabulation), and then create collective narratives that these new, quantized labels have any actual meaning or validity (fabulation). In effect, the tabulation/fabulation, re-tabulation/re-fabulation cycles become an energy source that pumps nutrients into parasitic bureaucratic metastasization instead of into improvement in classroom teaching and learning. I conclude with recommendations to reform the bureaucracy so that meaningful and lasting mathematics educational reform can actually happen.

Author

• Thomas Ricks, Louisiana State University