(D)effecting the Child: The scientifization of the self through school mathematics

This dissertation explores the socio-political dimension of mathematics education. It problematizes the power effects of school geometry, particularly Euclidean geometry, in the fabrication of modern and cosmopolitan subjects. Based on Foucault's discursive analysis strategies and power/knowledge relationships, this study maps the scientifization of the self through school mathematics, in which the desired citizen is shaped via the learning of elementary geometry. The mapping is conducted in two moments. First, it uses a discourse analysis of the self-evident truths about the "goodness" of mathematics for the future of the students. These truths have granted mathematical knowledge salvation narratives as a secure way to achieve success, welfare, health, social commitment and economic stability. Second, it uses a historization of the present to map the continuities and discontinuities that make possible to fabricate a desired rational and scientific citizen. It seeks to understand how truths about the need for a scientific child for economic progress are established. This thesis demonstrates the emergence of what is called the (d)effect of power of a specific scientific subjectivity. In which, school mathematics has a disciplinary and normalizing (homogenizing) effect in the fabrication of the productive and desired subjected body.