ZDM 99/1 Analyses Democracy and Authority: A Comple- mentarity in Mathematics Education?

Abstract: There is now a considerable literature exploring the connections between mathematics education and democratic so-ciety, much of it theoretical about what could or should occur. The question is what happens when an attempt is made to de-liberately realise such a link in a mathematics classroom. It was the investigation of this question, together with a student teacher, who undertook project work in a primary mathematics classroom that gave rise to the theme of democracy and authority. Follow-ing a short description of the case, this dual-concept theme is developed, first with reference to data in three domains: whole class, group work and in the interactions between the teacher figures and researcher; and then theoretically, as I explore my proposition that the relation between democracy and authority is best understood and explained with reference to the idea of complementarity. Kurzreferat: Können sich Demokratie und Autorität im Mathe-matikunterricht ergänzen? Es gibt inzwischen eine beträchtlich