1–334 PME28 – 2004 MIGHT STUDENTS BE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCERS?

Student’s investigative work in the mathematics ’ classroom has been supported through multiple perspectives. In this talk I propose to analyse the epistemological legitimacy of those investigations realized by students. Mathematical knowledge as well as the investigative praxis of the professional mathematician is viewed according to post-foundacional epistemologies. In this sense relevance is given to scientific, cultural, social, historical and institutional elements in the analysis of mathematical praxis and knowledge. So the praxis of the professional mathematician and the knowledge he produces in investigative settings is prototypical of the praxis and knowledge production by students when engaged in investigative tasks. I will discuss an epistemological model that conceptualises the mathematical classroom as a strong epistemological space in which students might produce knowledge epistemologically relevant. This relevancy is implicated in the way I conceive the epistemological possibilities of the mathematical classroom. I characterize the epistemological structure of the mathematics classroom according t