Uniting psychological, sociocultural and poststructural axes of analysis to better understand learning in mathematics

Abstract

Psychological views of learning have long informed mathematics and numeracy education. Such views support reasoning processes as foundational to the construction of knowledge and its application. In this cognitive sense the learning process is productive, though it can also be productive in the construction of identity (the learner’s sense of self as a legitimate participant in numerate practices). A poststructural axis of analysis recognises the power relationships in all teaching interactions, and the learner’s constitution as active numerate participant with/in them.