In-Between Critical Mathematics Education and Ethnomathematics. A Philosophical Reflection and an Empirical Case of a Romany Students’ group Mathematics Education.

Although D' Ambrosio (2001) in his later work speaks about the political dimension of Ethnomathematics as 'an evidence' and the researchers of Critical Mathematics Education have incorporated ethnomathematical ideas in their research, these two approaches are up to now perceived as separate research fields. In this paper we briefly present the development of both research fields and we explore their similarities. An empirical study on a minority group of Romany students is presented in order to illustrate on the one hand that it is difficult to separate both research fields, and on the other hand to demonstrate the fruitfulness of a common theoretical framework. A more effective communication between EM and CME should contribute to a better understanding of mathematics education mostly for minority and marginalized groups.

Publication year:2012

Keywords:D'Ambrosio, Skovsmose, philosophy of mathematics, critical mathematics education, ethnomathematics, foundation question, education, Greek context, Romany students