Ubiratan D'Ambrosio: of the calculation of variations to curricular variations

Abstract

The text analyzes the professional trajectory of Ubiratan D’Ambrosio (1932-2021). It focuses on three moments of this journey. The first is his work in Brazil as a university professor. Later, the text analyzes his stay in the USA. Finally, it considers his return to Brazil. The study is part of the international movement of research on the history of knowledge, with analyses of the backstage of scientific production. This perspective dates back to David Bloor’s so-called “Strong Program” of 1976, in the affirmation of scientific production as a social enterprise, and its developments in the following decades. In this sense, the study makes use of personal archives, such as the documents collected by D’Ambrosio. Such documents, as research sources, allow access to the backstage of the production of knowledge linked to the field of mathematics, the organization of mathematics courses and references for mathematical research, the American environment for welcoming foreigners into academia and the movement to establish disciplinary fields such as Mathematics Education in Brazil.