The Mathematician and the cockroach

Abstract

Three friends meet, not exactly in the same space and time. They talk about their lives, professions, demands and daily tasks. A 13^th scenario is the mathematical preparation of mathematics teachers. Another 26^th is a way of problematizing research policies and aesthetics in the area of Mathematics Education - provoking some sparks, inventing (being invented) other possibilities. Any other scenario can be produced, depending on the pact that each reader, I say author of this text, may be interested. Anguish, contradictions, suspensions, deconstructions, circumstances of initial teacher training and modes of production/invention research in Mathematics Education are produced. This is the first act. Small phrases (can) provoke some sensations, intensities, demands for (possible) other ways of producing meanings. They do not explain, nor even systematize, anything. They are only, and because they are, they are possible possibilities. They do not indicate, they affect. They do not explain, they leave in suspension. This is the second act. Perhaps, fiction may offer other possibilities for problematizing (and problematizing ourselves) our cultural practices and our theorization movements. One way of seeing, producing, inventing, being affected, and feeling what about the other can have an effect on me – always in attempts to put our identities at risk. Fiction as process, as movement. Just other.