Mathematics for makers and mathematics for users

Alexandre V. Borovik

pp. 309-327

in: Bharath Sriraman (ed), Humanizing mathematics and its philosophy, Basel, Birkhäuser, 2017

Abstract

The current crisis in the school-level mathematics education is a sign that it reaches a bifurcation point and will inevitably split into two streams: • education for a selected minority of children/young people who, in their adult lives, will be filling increasingly small share of jobs which really require mathematics competence (I call them makers); and• awareness classes for the rest of population, end users of technology saturated by mathematics which however will remain invisible to them.In this paper, I discuss challenges arising in mathematics education for the makers. This is a theme which is rarely discussed in the mathematics education literature. It demands re-thinking of basic assumptions underpinning the mainstream mathematics education.I invite the reader to discard taboos and start a frank and open discussion of this difficult problem:What is Mathematics Education, Really?