The ‘Ethical Turn’ Reaches Mathematics Education

The widespread ‘ethical turn’ in philosophy, the humanities and social sciences has left the research field of mathematics education behind. Mathematics education, especially its central activities of teaching and learning mathematics, is thoroughly entangled with issues of ethics and justice. While there are many books on social justice and mathematics education, no dedicated volume on the ethics of mathematics and education has yet been published. This book aims to fill this gap. Perhaps this lack is no accidental oversight, for mathematics holds itself aloof from ethics claiming that as it is objective it is beyond good and evil. Given mathematics education’s birth from, and continued identification with mathematics itself, it is no surprise that it is one of the last bastions to wake up to the relevance and importance of ethics. This book explores the philosophical foundations of ethics and mathematics, offers a re-envisioning of what we mean by ethics and then provides an ethical critique of mathematics education from multiple perspectives. The common ground shared by ethics and social justice in mathematics is explored, as is the ethics of teacher and learner perspectives. After looking at ethical content in the teaching and learning of mathematics, the book concludes with a critical self-examination of this whole inquiry, questioning the ‘ethics of ethics’ and what we might mean by the ‘good’.