Pedagogia critica e didattica emancipativa della matematica. A partire da Paulo Freire.

Paulo Freire argues that knowledge has a dynamic status and that there is no dichotomy between objectivity and subjectivity, or between reflection and action. He believes that knowledge is not neutral, it is constantly created and recreated as each agent reflects and operates in and on the world. Knowledge, therefore, is not permanently fixed in the abstract properties of objects. It is the result of a process in which acquiring existing knowledge and producing new ones are but two moments of a single movement (Freire, 1982). In addition, knowledge requires arguments not just objects to know, the latter are necessary, but not sufficient. The role of the subject is important because without the curious presence of subjects in front of the world one could not generate knowledge. Subjects are actors in the transformation of reality so in the learning process, the only person who truly learns is the one who re-inventes that learning (Freire, 1973, p.101). As humans we change, so also the knowledge we produce. Freire's theory obligates math teachers to probe the non-positivist meaning of mathematical knowledge. Issues such as the importance of quantitative reasoning in the development of critical consciousness or the ways in which anxiety in mathematics helps to support hegemonic ideologies are aspects of an extremely productive conceptual overturn. By focusing our attention on the interrelations between our concrete practice of daily teaching and the wider ideological and structural context we could re-read the emancipative view of the contribution of mathematical education oriented towards the progress of social humanization.