The Role of Values in Mathematics Education

Abstract

A cursory look at the proceedings of the last four ICME’s international conferences reveals an increas- ing interest in the role of cultural factors in mathemat- ics education. This paper attempts to enrich these discussions in two directions. First, to apply the con- trastive analysis approach in bringing out the role of values in mathematics education; and, second, to go in some details into the role of values in the various aspects of mathematics education. The paper thus consists of three main parts. The first part presents episodes from two distinct cultures to be used as ex- amples for illustrative and contrastive purposes. The second part contrasts the episodes from different per- spectives. The third part discusses and analyses in some details the potential role of values in mathemat- ics education as well as computer education.