Ethnomathematics as a right to know oneself: subversions and insurgencies in teaching, research, and the training of mathematics teachers

Abstract

This article discusses subversions and insurgencies that arise from the field of Ethnomathematics, putting tension on hegemonic and normative ideals and discourses in the teaching of Mathematics in Basic Education, in Higher Education specifically in the field of teacher training for mathematics teachers, and in research in Mathematics Education. These three movements are similar to positions and actions that, in the field of Mathematics Education, have been characterized as responsible subversions that propose insurgencies and resistances that are responsible, from a critical intercultural perspective, for the common good. The tensions of hegemonic and normative ideals and discourses are presented, which, in their modes of capture, place Ethnomathematics at the service of anti-pedagogies of the State and power. In addition to these structures, we address the potential of Ethnomathematics for the recognition of individuals as part of collectives of historical political and affirmative resistance, which is an ethical, political and epistemic bet of Mathematics Education. Finally, we present an Ethnomathematics perspective that challenges students, teachers, and researchers to rethink themselves in intercultural dialogue with subjects and collectives of historical affirmative struggles. Its horizon is, therefore, pluriversal: it is not just about including subalternized knowledge in the curriculum – although this path is important and necessary –, but about transforming education itself into an ethical-political project that, in a reactive and proactive way, brings as a radical requirement the narration of other stories beyond the hegemonic, political, cultural, and pedagogical one decreed as the only one.