Yells of (in)dependence in the education of teachers who teach mathematics

Abstract

In an affirmation of the specificity of teachers’ content knowledge, Shulman subverts the aphorism “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches” in the proposition of “Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach”. We understand that, as in the yell of “Independence or Death?” attributed to D. Pedro I, the discussion proposed by Shulman is a political dispute, not necessarily geographic, but in the territory of knowledge, with leading actors as: “who does”, “who knows” and “who teaches”. Seeking for a displacement of this discussion, we propose in this paper a decolonial reflection considering the ones who were placed in a position of denial – of not knowing – in this debate. Therefore, our aim is to shift debates on mathematics teacher education to a political terrain, through: (a) reflections on coloniality that challenge teachers’ education literature; and (b) identification of discourses of resistance in students' experiences with mathematics(s) mobilized during their education pathways, in education institutional contexts (school and university). Regarding the first issue, we understand that – and this is how we seek to develop in the paper – a theoretical-political dialogue with thinkers from subaltern groups, who were located on the margins of academic boundaries, holds remarkable potential for the construction of other paths when tensioning in teachers’ education literature. In the analysis of the students’ discourse, we bring an opportunity for unlearning, considering a resonance of countercolonial yells about invisibility of gender, bodies and beings in different mathematical practices in university and school.