Where would formal, academic mathematics stand in a curriculum informed by ethnomathematics? A critical review of ethnomathematics

This paper is a critical review of the ethnomathematics literature and classifies ethnomathematics according to where it might stand in relation to the teaching of formal, academic mathematics. This paper investigates what it sees as four possibilities: ethnomathematics should replace academic mathematics, ethnomathematics should be a supplement to the mathematics curriculum, ethnomathematics should be used as a springboard for academic mathematics and ethnomathematics should be taken into consideration when preparing learning situations. We argue that it is only through the lens of formal, academic mathematics sensitive to cultural differences that the real value of the mathematics inherent in certain cultures and societies be understood and appreciated.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Differentially positioned language games: ethnomathematics from a philosophical perspective

This paper discusses a new philosophical perspective for ethnomathematics which articulates Ludwig Wittgenstein’s and Michel Foucault’s theoretical notions. It is conceived as a theoretical toolbox which allows the analysis of, on the one hand, the mathematical language games of different forms of life and their family resemblances and, on the other hand, the Eurocentric discourses of academic and school mathematics and their effects of truth. Based on fieldwork done in rural forms of life in the south of Brazil, examples of the use of this perspective are presented. The paper analyzes language games of those different forms of life and the school mathematics discipline, highlighting the complex network of learning and powers that makes other mathematics than that known as the mathematics be positioned “in a void” in school curricula.     

古今、中西矛盾与化解

在中国特殊的历史语境中,语文学科的现代性建构常常缠绕着“古今”、“中西”矛盾,它们的焦点是如何处理引进“西方”和继承传统、保持民族性之间的关系。百年来,语文教育在向现代转换的过程中实际上走了一条渐趋“西化”、疏离传统、淡化民族个性的道路,这不利于自身的稳健发展。我们需要立足“关系”思维来妥善处理语文教育的现代性与传统性、世界性和民族性的关系,努力化解它们之间的矛盾。     

Constructive Criticisms of Methodological and Editorial Practices

Thompson (1999a and elsewhere) has taken strong positions on a variety of methodological issues. In this article, the authors critique some of those positions and provide alternative views for each.     

经济全球化的内涵与内在矛盾

全球化是世界经济发展的必然趋势。本试图通过全球化的理论和实践的分析,多角度、主体式地探讨全球化的动因、本质、历史进程、变化特征及由此引起的国家间的政治、经济矛盾。     

启蒙思潮与梁启超小说观的内在矛盾

清末民初特定的时代语境,促使知识分子不断反省传统文化的积弊,并将思想启蒙作为救亡图存以及文化重建的药方,小说的普及面和独特功效激发了梁启超小说新民的冲动.然而,小说为谁而作,普通现实读者还是理想读者?这一问题的取舍不定构造了梁启超小说观的内在矛盾,两类读者审美规范的冲突鲜明地呈现了梁启超试图整合小说为谁而作与小说为何而作的尴尬和无力.     

交际教学法批判之辨析

文章首先系统地梳理了外语教学界对交际教学法的主要批判之处,然后从理论基础上指出对这些批判的偏颇之处,最后认为在实践中应正确、全面地理解与应用交际教学法。     

对韩礼德“阶和范畴语法”理论的批评

Halliday的“现代汉语语法范畴”揭开了阶和范畴语法理论研究的序幕 ,其主要目的是说明语言是什么 ,语言如何工作。该理论一提出 ,就受到当代数位语言大师的批评 ,该文简要回顾了Postal,Matthews等对级阶理论的批评 ;Butler等对类概念的批评 ;Huddle ston ,Palmer等对结构概念的批评和Postal对分类性质的批评。     

Legal fetishism and the contradictions of the GATS

This paper locates the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) within the broader ideological transformation of ‘services’ from fundamentally social relations that are embedded within communities to commercialised commodities traded within an international market place. It is written from the standpoint of someone actively engaged in the current campaign against the GATS as a social activist, trade unionist, media commentator, NGO lobbyist, adviser to indigenous Maori and international campaigner and as an academic who teaches and writes on international economic law and New Zealand's neoliberal revolution. [1] It seeks to explain the ways in which the normative dimension of the Agreement works to silence those whose conceptualisation of services falls outside the marketised paradigm. The aim is to delegitimate the strategy of those who avoid meaningful dialogue by retreating inside the text and to identify more clearly the barriers and opportunities that the Agreement itself presents to effective critical engagement.     

论和谐范畴与矛盾同一性

和谐是表征事物发展状态和关系特征的辩证法范畴,是矛盾同一性的表现形式之一;和谐不是绝对的同一,它以内在的差异和对立为前提,揭示和谐范畴的本质内涵,阐明和谐范畴在唯物辩证法范畴体系中应有的位置,倡导人们树立科学的和谐意识,有极为重要的理论价值和哲学方法论意义。     

马克思社会批判的理论维度

现实生活是马克思社会批判的理论基点,它确立了马克思社会批判理论的基本前提,使马克思社会批判理论与其他社会理论的本质性分野得以明证;社会分工是认识社会历史的钥匙,是马克思对资本主义社会展开深度批判的理论支柱,它透析了马克思社会批判的理论架构;马克思对历史之谜的全部解答是对历史构成的整体揭示,奠基了马克思社会批判理论的历史视野,确定了社会批判的理论内涵。     

存在图的逻辑地位——批评与回应

存在图是继欧拉图、文恩图和皮尔士一文恩图之后的又一种逻辑图。逻辑图是指用于表示命题和推理的二维图形。然而由于存在图之前的逻辑图在表达能力上的缺陷以及现代数理逻辑的成功,长期以来存在图并未引起人们的关注。直到近来计算机表示的图示推理发展起来以后人们才认识到它的重要性,并把它作为一种图式逻辑纳入了哲学逻辑的范畴。人们对存在图逻辑地位的认可经历了一个复杂的过程。存在图在被认可道路上遇到了逻辑系统身份、推理效率和阐述的精确性三个问题,随着这三个问题的解决,人们逐渐认可了存在图的逻辑地位。     

The contradictions of education policy: disadvantage and achievement

In England, New Labour's Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners is presented as the most radical for a generation, addressing systemic weaknesses and enabling a new social democratic settlement to secure education in the public sphere. In this article the authors test these claims against proposals in the Strategy that acknowledge and seek to address the failure of the polity to ‘break the link between class and achievement’. The article highlights a number of inherent contradictions in the Strategy and argues that the central proposals of choice and diversity are unlikely to reduce the gap between disadvantage and achievement. The article concludes that until the principles of justice and democracy are restored to a constitutive settlement of education as a public service then the bond of class and inequality will simply be reproduced rather than challenged by education policy.     

Imagined Adulthood: Resources,plans and contradictions

In this paper we illustrate the contradictory consequences of female individualization by exploring young people's imagined futures, drawing on an analysis of 'lifelines' collected as part of an ongoing longitudinal qualitative study of young people's transitions to adulthood. We discuss the method and compare lifelines across the sample. We suggest that while there are areas of consensus (such as the hetero-normative goal of marriage and children by 35) the traditionally gendered transitions to adulthood are under pressure, a pressure that is exerted most strongly by working class young people. Through three contrasting case studies we illustrate how the ways in which young people imagine their futures are constrained by the resources and possibilities of their particular social locations.