The Formation of Critical Thinking in Mathematics Learning through a Model of Contextualization with the Social, Political, and Historical Environment in Ecuadorian Education

This chapter presents an innovative proposal aimed at the formation of critical thinking in the learning of mathematics in Ecuador to establish connections with the social, political, and historical environment. From an interpretative-ethnographic paradigm, a qualitative study was conducted, exploring the conceptual framework of critical thinking in the teaching, learning, and understanding of mathematics through the vision of ethnomathematics, contextualized learning, and the CDR method of contextualization, decontextualization, and recontextualization, in addition to the connection that this method presents with ethnomathematics and ethnomodelling. The results show that the proposed approach promotes the understanding and connection of mathematics with the cultural environment, integrating mathematical concepts with political and historical social aspects of the Ecuadorian reality, which strengthens the development of critical thinking of mathematics in students. Two exercises related to everyday life problems are presented, proposed to a focal group of mathematics students in the subject of Didactics of Mathematics of the Mathematics Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the Central University of Ecuador, with their corresponding analysis of results and conclusions. The chapter concludes by highlighting the vital importance of integrating culture and the social and political context in the learning and teaching of mathematics to achieve meaningful and critical learning in Ecuadorian mathematics education.