Mathematics education and democracy

The emergence of the informational society creates paradoxes of inclusion and citizenship, which call into question any simple interpretation of the meaning of "democratic access to powerful mathematical ideas". In exploring what such an access could mean, we put forward ways of understanding what "powerful mathematical ideas" represent logically, psychologically, culturally and sociologically. As a way of tackling the issues of democratic access to these ideas, we elaborate on three arenas of mathematics education practices where it is possible to build a meaningful participation to committed political action, namely the classroom, school organization, and society both locally and globally. In particular we try to explore what mathematics education could mean for the development of "critical citizenship". In the project we refer to mathematics education in different contexts, for instance to South Africa where a concern for mathematics education and democracy tries to leave behind the disasters caused by the apartheid regime. We refer to mathematics education in Brazil, Colombia well as in Denmark.