Dialogical Inquiry in Mathematics Teaching and Learning

The collection of papers in this anthology represents whatmay be a broad exploration of the role of philosophicalinquiry in the classroom and in mathematics teachereducation, a topos characterized by multiple, intersectingthemes, all of which converge on a central question: what isthe role of mathematics in the construction of the realitieswe live by, and could that role be different if we becameaware of its invisible power? In the age of the Anthropocene- an era in which technological intervention plays an evermore central role in the way we build, develop and attemptto maintain our increasingly fragile and risk-prone humanand natural world, what are the implications of thehegemonic epistemic status of mathematics in thoseprocesses? Does mathematics define the conditions ofpossibility of all knowledge, whether expressed in a theoryor silently invested in a practice? Does or can mathematicsand its presumed value-neutrality serve to limit, constrain,suppress, and even preclude other, perhaps more valuableforms of knowledge? Alternatively, can philosophicaldialogue about mathematics serve to clarify, unmask, reframeand recreate our understanding of mathematics and itssymbolic power in the human and material world, and act asan emancipatory form of knowledge in culture and society?What would such dialogues look like in the mathematicsclassroom? The papers in this volume address these questionsin various contexts and registers, and provide prospectiveand in-service teachers with compelling and suggestive waysof responding to them. A must-read for math educatorseverywhere.Nadia Stoyanova Kennedy, Associate Professorof Mathematics Education, City University of New York, USA.Eva Marsal, Professor of Philosophy, University ofEducation, Karlsruhe, Germany & University of Warsaw,Poland.