for the learning of mathematics

an international journal of mathematics education

Steven Khan - Vol. 31 Num. 3 (2011)
 Ethnomathematics as mythopoetic curriculum

14-18
 ABSTRACT:

I argue that until ethnomathematical frameworks are explicitly used to investigate the specific mathematical practices in networks of powerful elites the term will continue to index that which is Other to 'traditional' mathematics and run a risk of desubstantialization. I suggest that the field ally itself with disciplines and perspectives in which the imagination is central, such as mythopoetics, in order to address these risks. Further, I claim that ethnomathematics has been a mythopoetic endeavour involved in demythologizing and demystifying dominant discourses of mathematics and mathematics education and propose that there is need now for greater attention to mindful remythologizing.