Abstract:
By presenting and advocating the potential of oral history as a pedagogical strategy in mathematics education and in teacher formation, this chapter describes the aspects and possibilities of this approach in the treatment and problematization of issues relating to educational cultures and mathematics education. This chapter also presents a panorama of history of mathematics education in Brazil as a line of research and its contributions for training mathematics teachers. Finally, there is a debate of a theoretical and methodological nature about the key issues and strategies to be considered in interventions which use oral history in teaching; some examples are given as reference.
Destiny is the life of one man, history is the life of all of us.
I want to narrate history so as not to lose sight of the destiny of any man.
Svetlana Aleksiévitch
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Notes
- 1.
As Miguel and Miorim (2004, 161) state: “When we dialogue with history ... we create new history, not only because we ask the past new questions, but also, and above all, because we incorporate new sources, new voices to the dialogue; we see new possibilities of establishing relationships between apparently disconnected and immeasurable discourses; because we impart new displacements, foci of discontinuity and new links of continuity.”
- 2.
In Brazil, the so-called BNCC, acronym in Portuguese for National Core Curriculum, is a set of provisions, approved by the federal government, in 2018, which radically changed education in Brazilian schools. This set of provisions was hastily drawn up, and as a result, escaped the scrutiny of academic communities or researchers of education.
- 3.
According to Mendes (2012), the milestone for the discussion of the relationship between the history, pedagogy, and sociology of mathematics and mathematics education was the creation of the International Group on the relations between the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics (HPM), during the workshop on history of mathematics education, in Toronto, Canada, in 1983. HPM is a group affiliated to the International Committee on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI).
- 4.
Community of practice is a concept derived from the work of Etienne Wenger. Briefly, it is a group of individuals who meet periodically, according to certain rules, established by the members of the group themselves, and who share an interest in learning something and practicing what has been learnt.
- 5.
According to Miguel and Miorim (2002, p. 187), in the field of research in history of mathematics education, emphasis is placed on the dimension of mathematical activity “exclusively concerned with investigating the intentional processes of circulation, reception, appropriation and transformation of this activity,” and it includes “any study of a historical nature which investigates, diachronically or synchronically, mathematical activity in history, solely the pedagogical practices of circulation and appropriation of mathematical knowledge and in social investigative practices in mathematical education.”
- 6.
As defined by Ferreira (2016), if we understand the “present time” as the time in which we live and of which we have memories, it is a historical period defined by moving beacons which are dislocated with the progressive disappearance of witnesses.
- 7.
- 8.
Halbwachs (2004) states that social groups allow us a great arsenal of memories, so that even when people are no longer materially present one can speak of a “collective memory when we recall an event that took place in the life of the group and which we considered; and we still consider, from the point of view of the group” (pp. 40–41).
- 9.
In Brazil, the need to create a specific discipline, in higher education in mathematics, focused on studies on the history of mathematics education, has been discussed, without consensus.
- 10.
In Brazil, the undergraduate university degrees responsible for teacher training are called licensures.
- 11.
As defined by Mendes (2012), the history of mathematics studies the epistemology of mathematics and the development of mathematics as scientific content. The history of mathematics has been present in undergraduate courses in teacher training courses, in Brazil, since the 1980s, although its presence has become more visible since the 1990s. The majority of current undergraduate courses pay attention to history of mathematics (Balestri & Cyrino, 2010). In addition, it can be said that the history of mathematics has been suggested as an approach to teaching mathematics in basic schooling since the publication of documents governing education in the country (especially the National Curriculum Parameters, in 1997).
- 12.
A reference to the history of mathematics (and not to the history of mathematics education) as this is the favored field in Brazilian official documents about teaching mathematics. When it comes to the use of history in teaching mathematics, references are always made to the history of mathematics and almost never to the history of mathematics education. Changing this scenario should be a top priority for Brazilian researchers in the field of history of mathematics education, due to the sharp growth of this field during the last decade and its consolidation.
- 13.
In Brazil, schooling is divided into stages: basic education is composed of preschool (optional), elementary school (compulsory, 9 years in duration), and secondary education. Secondary education lasts 3 years and is compulsory for those who intend to go to university.
- 14.
The materials used were official documents which regulate teaching, in general, and teaching mathematics, in particular, didactic and paradidactic, as well as academic, materials.
- 15.
Grupo Escolar was a primary education institution created in Brazil at the end of the nineteenth century, through one of the first major educational reforms aimed at creating a national education system. Such institution was created in the state of São Paulo, but they rapidly spread throughout the country. Legally, Grupo Escolar was extinguished in the 1970s, and the buildings were occupied by elementary schools operating under the responsibility of municipalities. Thus, even if they no longer exist, it is still the case that in cities they often serve as a reference. To study at Grupo Escolar means to study in the institution which today occupies the physical space of what was once Grupo Escolar.
- 16.
Museu da Pessoa (www.museudapessoa.net) is a virtual museum, founded in 1991 in the city of São Paulo, with the objective of creating a free and broad network to give access to life histories and institutions. The Oral History is one of the main methodologies used in the museum for the recording of stories.
- 17.
Following the French model of the Ecoles Normales, Brazilian Escolas Normais were created at the end of the nineteenth century. They were secondary education courses aimed at training elementary school teachers, to teach in early childhood schooling. The creation of Escolas Normais and Grupos Escolares in Brazil took place as part of a national project to restructure primary education. The adjective “normal” in Portuguese (just like “Normales” in French) is justified because function of such schools was to train teachers who would be responsible for educating children according to the “norm,” the current social rules.
- 18.
The concept of Historia Magistra, from Latin, suggests that history serves to record noteworthy past events in order to guide humanity in the present, toward a better future.
- 19.
Mato Grosso was a state in Brazilian Midwest. In 1979, it was divided in two new states: Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.
- 20.
The purpose of this operation was to burn native vegetation to make room for cattle farming or agriculture.
- 21.
Cerrado is a region of Brazil, a biome with specific fauna and flora. It is one of the largest biomes in Brazil and indisputably one of the most biologically diverse in the planet.
- 22.
“Experience [similar to the word existence] is the way of a being that exists, of a being that has no other being, another essence, besides its own corporeal, finite existence, embodied in time and space, inhabiting the world with others. And existence, as well as life, cannot be conceptualized because it always escapes any determination, because it is in itself an excess, an overflow, because it is in itself possibility, creation, invention, event. Maybe that is why we should keep the experience as a word and not make it into a concept” (Larossa, 2016, p. 43).
- 23.
In Brazil, vestibular is a mandatory examination taken by students in order to gain access to higher education. There are public universities (maintained by state and federal governments) and private universities and colleges. Students must pass vestibular in order to enroll in any such higher education institution.
- 24.
The meaning of something does not exist “in itself,” it is not inherent to things, it is attributed by individuals. Thus, one cannot speak of “true meaning.” The expression “plausible meaning” is intended to highlight this characteristic: teachers in their interviews, as well as other sources, can deal with a particular object. The collation of a variety of sources allows the researcher to assign a plausible meaning to a particular thing, since the meaning “in itself” cannot be objectively communicated by any source. The attribution of meaning is always a careful movement of approximation.
- 25.
In Brazil, the degrees in pedagogy form the teachers who will work in early childhood education, the so-called elementary teachers. Such teachers are responsible for all initial education of the children. This includes literacy in the mother tongue and introduction to elementary mathematics (numbers, counting, etc.).
- 26.
School discipline is used here according to Chervel (1990).
- 27.
Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR, abbreviation in Portuguese) is one of the oldest higher education institutions in Brazil. Campus Litoral—located in a city on the coast of the state of Paraná—was recently created and has an innovative pedagogical project, in comparison to other higher education institutions in Brazil. UFPR Litoral was studied by Matucheski (2016).
- 28.
Sources for obtaining information for this purpose are, for example, the official documents on education and curriculum.
- 29.
Sources for information on this purpose are materials which explain content, teaching methodologies, and motivational practices, such as lessons, exercises, activities, evaluations, student materials (such as notebooks and projects), teaching programs, textbooks, lesson plans, etc.
- 30.
This is the article entitled As matemáticas modernas (no plural): um ensaio sobre os modos de produção significado ao(s) movimento(s) no ensino primário Brasileiro, in which the authors argue that a movement (in this case, the new mathematics movement) is carried out in very different ways; thus there cannot be a single movement, but a multitude of conceptions in relation to the movement which are effected through practice. It so happens that, in Portuguese, some adjectives, like promos, and the noun “mathematics” have a plural form; therefore, the title of the article emphasizes this plural form, which cannot be translated to English (one modern mathematics—singular—and a myriad of modern mathematics—plural).
- 31.
This is the interview with João Linneu do Amaral Prado, available in Baraldi (2003), in which the interviewee talks about his life both as a teacher and a student at the time of the new mathematics movement in Brazil.
- 32.
Chimamanda Adichie’s video “The danger of a single story” was discussed in the first class of this discipline, with the objective of raising students’ awareness in relation to the production and recording of historical knowledge. Freely available with Portuguese subtitles at: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript?language=pt-br.
- 33.
Transcription, textualization, and letters of assignment are steps of the work with oral history. These steps are discussed in a specific chapter in this same book. In summary, letters of assignment give the researcher the right to use the interview for academic purposes.
- 34.
The topics which arose during the activity were the historical aspects of the relations between family and school, technical schools in Brazil, the history of youth and adult education in Brazil, aspects of the history of educational legislation in Brazil since 1930, a history of how problem solving is treated in mathematics teaching in Brazil, historical aspects of educational evaluation systems in Brazil and evaluation in mathematics, a history of mathematics textbooks in Brazil, a history of the training of mathematics teachers in Brazil, a history about teaching of geometry in basic education, and a history of the mathematics curriculum in basic education in the State of São Paulo.
- 35.
According to Matucheski (2016), “the political scenario in the beginning of 2000 favored the creation of UFPR Litoral: the federal government, Paraná state government and municipal governments of the coastal region entered into a partnership for installing a university in a coastal city in Paraná. The project had the support of the then President of the Federal University of Parana” (p. 435).”
- 36.
Matinhos is a coastal city in the state of Parana, where UFPR Litoral is located.
- 37.
Internationally renowned for his studies in education, Paulo Freire was secretary of education of the city of São Paulo between 1989 and 1992. At the time, he proposed and put into practice a process of curricular reorientation based on his conceptions on education. According to Saul and Silva (2009), as of 1992, many Brazilian states and municipalities, committed to administration by the people, chose to create curricular policies according to the same assumptions implemented in the city of São Paulo. However, such proposals have since been changed because new management teams often had different ideological biases.
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da Silva, H. (2019). Oral History in Mathematics Education: Possibilities for Effective Intervention in Teaching. In: Garnica, A. (eds) Oral History and Mathematics Education . History of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16311-2_4
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