Transferring mathematics from and into school:An ideology critique of the use-value of mathematics

The recent international emphasis on the importance of working with students ”real-life” mathematical problems (of which PISA is the most boisterous example) has provoked changes in the mathematics curriculums all around the world; especially in a Nordic context where great emphasis is given to the exploration of everyday examples of mathematics in action. Notwithstanding the official discourse being one of emancipation ”'students get better prepared for future challenges by exploring ”real-life examples”', attention should be paid to the way in which well-intentioned actions can ending up having a result opposite to their aims. In this proposal I take advantage of recent research done within mathematics education about the possibility of transferring knowledge from and into school. While the majority of this literature commends the possibility of transfer, thus assuming both the desirability of transfer and the importance of school mathematics for the professional and everyday lives of individuals, I am interested in developing an ideology critique on the belief sustaining the research investigating this issue. This critique will be illustrated through the exploration of a typical transfer situation between school and workplace.The theoretical framework informing my critique comes from the contemporary philosophy of Slavoj Žižek, especially his revitalization of the Marxian concept of ideology. Thus, the method used to analyse research can be called ideology critique. It consists in showing the incongruities between the discourse emanating from research and its actualization within a life world context - in this case, schools.I conclude that the importance given to the use-value of mathematics functions as the necessary ideological ‘double’ disguising the role school mathematics plays within capitalist economics and ideology. A reading of schools not as places of knowledge or competences but as places of economical and ideological (re)production allows one to conceive the push to marry off school mathematics and everyday life as an ideological mechanism in asserting the role of schools as places of social accreditation. This is a problem affecting all educational systems, in particular the Nordic ones