(Re)imagining spatialities for equity in mathematics education

Abstract

Contemporary discourse about the ‘opening’/‘closing’ of schools and what is ‘inside’/‘outside’ the curriculum potentially exacerbates existing inequities in mathematics education. This paper explores how different spatial imaginaries might advance or hinder efforts to deeply and systematically pursue equity. We use critical postcolonial thought for our (re)imaginings in the South African context. We argue that viewing the school, the mathematics curriculum, and language as nouned, bounded, spatial objects highlights what needs attention and for whom, but also points to the indelible, structural nature of exclusion. We propose a notion of spatiality as experienced encountering. This recognises all people and their practices as strategic agents, and emphasises relations between people, but also between the mind, body and Earth.