César Sáenz de Castro

Mathematics Education for Social Justice: A Case Study

In this chapter, we present a case study of a mathematics teacher in a school in Madrid who identifies himself as an educator for social justice. We analyze both his classroom practice using an observation protocol, and key elements in his biography through a biographic-narrative interview, to compare what the teacher declares as ideal with his action in the classroom. From the observations of his practice, it seems that the teacher adopts an instrumental and value-neutral perspective on mathematics, but from the biographic-narrative interview we obtain both an understanding of the origins of this apparent instrumental perspective, and also many notable intuitions and critical perspectives on sociopolitical issues related to mathematics, teacher training and mathematics education research.