The theory of objectification and its place among sociocultural research in Mathematics Education
Keywords:
Activity, Ethics, Joint Labor, Language and Discourse, Sociocultural ResearchAbstract
This article is an attempt at locating the theory of objectification (TO) among sociocultural research in mathematics education. The first part contains a summary of the emergence of sociocultural perspectives in mathematics education research. The second part deals with some of the central ideas that underpin the TO. It begins with a discussion of the concepts of teachers and students. Then, the general trend of language-centered types of theorizing in mathematics teaching and learning is discussed. The discussion is followed by a brief presentation of the concept of activity as understood in dialectic materialism. Such a concept is central to the TO. This concept, however, is reformulated as joint labor, which works in tandem with a dialect materialist concept of knowledge and the knower. Through these concepts the TO reformulates teaching-and-learning as an ethical cultural-historical phenomenon, providing the TO with a distinct orientation among sociocultural research.Downloads
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