Unmasking the Gods: Clarifying Social Construction Theses in Mathematics Education

The phrase ‘social construction ’ has raised hackles in aca-demic debates and has rapidly gained currency among theo-rists of all stripes. Unfortunately, as almost always hap-pens, once a phrase is used too often, it begins to lose its impact and its original meaning-in-use. One of the goals of this paper is to reinvigorate this metaphor by trying to look at some of the roles it has played in the various de-bates. Another goal is to try to clear the air regarding its use in mathematics. Although mathematical development is often seen as dialogical and historically contingent, it is a discipline that hides its nature under a monological mask that claims to be fixed, monolithic and eternally true. By explaining the use of this phrase in recent writing relating to the philosophy of mathematics and mathematics educa-tion, I hope to re-illuminate the contingent nature of the discipline and the mathematics classroom “In mathematical construction we are, as it were, gods. ”