The Hostile Takeover of Mathematics Education By Efficient Pedagogy
When I started teaching in the 90’s, I don’t think I ever came across the word “pedagogy”. Sure, at Teacher’s College it was worshipped like some golden god, but my early classroom experience as a mathematics teacher was absent of such intellectual flatulence.
I focused on student relationships and sharing cool ideas about mathematics — the coolest came from outside curriculum material. My whole teaching career was based on that.
Nothing else.
Oh sure, I went to “professional development” in mathematics. Some of it was benign. Some of it made me want to jump out of a window.
In fact, my whole quitting teaching came because I refused to go to a PD afternoon in my own school because I didn’t want to leave my classroom anymore to sub teachers — and subpar use of my time.
The principal came to my classroom after lunch, knocked on my door, and hauled me outside. He was displeased as to my choice of staying in the classroom, and that I should report to him the next morning to get more of an earful.
By the time I walked back to the chalkboard to continue writing the lesson of the day, a proverbial straw broke inside me.
I decided to quit teaching. That was May, 2013.
I showed up early — even before my principal — to hand him a 7 page resignation letter.
So, looking back, it was really pedagogy that killed my desire to continue being a classroom mathematics teacher.
And now, it’s killing all of mathematics education.
If you have a few weeks to read this article, let me know if you come across the word “curiosity” anywhere. I will be waiting.
The virus is global.
My problem with pedagogy — the same one that caused me to quit teaching altogether — is that it arrogantly prioritizes itself over the mathematics that it there to support.
Support. Not supplant.
Let me give you some cooking analogies that drive home what I am trying to communicate here.
I have been baking chocolate chip cookies for over 30 years. Only recently did I come across the process of “brown-buttering”. It’s made all the difference. I have also continued to play around with the ratio of the brown and white sugars and refrigerating the batter.
The other night, I think I made the best Mongolian beef. That’s because I introduced two important processes — “brining the beef” and “velveting the beef”.
All the talk of how to cook — “pedagogy” — only has substance, meaning, flavor, and curiosity BECAUSE what I chose to cook is delicious!
The content dictates everything. Not the other way around.
And, in mathematics education, mathematics content has been confidently put to bed as though we don’t need to discuss it anymore. Let’s just move on to pedagogy and spend our all our free time there.
What are you brining, mathematics education?
And, do you think children will like it — not the teachers who get paid to like it?
Speaking of children, let’s stop pretending we fully care about them in this space — when there is zero addressing of their mental health. I have proof. My session on mathematics and mental health was rejected as a workshop by a very popular math conference in California. The same one that will be a keynote at a Mental Health Summit this April in Banff.
Pedagogy is teacher-facing. Pedagogy is adult-facing. Pedagogy is authoritarian-facing. Pedagogy lives in an academic bubble of institutional fantasy. The detachment from both children and mathematics is frightening.
Content is student-facing. Content is history-facing.
Ooops. Mathematics education doesn’t teach math history, so that’s another issue as to why pedagogy has a stranglehold on content. The worse part is that pedagogy has created the monster known as the edu-celebrity — where everyone has a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Except, nobody is really making chocolate chip cookies. More like twice-boiled cabbage.
Sadly, it’s easy to be an expert in pedagogy. By the way, I am not only a pedagogical dunce, I am a content one as well.
What I am an expert at is being insanely curious — mathematics, music, food, travel, art, etc.
All connected by the quality of the content. Not how do I listen to my music. Not how do I cook. Not how I traveled.
What am I listening to? What am I eating? Where am I going?
Well, this September, I am going to Sardinia…:)
