Mathematics Education and the arenas of new conflicts over inequality - a theoretical framework for research?

Neuenfeldt, A.; Dexel, T.

Abstract

Research on inequality in mathematics education has gained both quality and quantity in the last decades. Since then, new social conflicts and debates have risen. In this paper we therefore present a framework for analysing inequalities and related attitudes developed by the sociologists Steffen Mau and colleagues. We argue that the theoretical assumptions build a useful framework for conceptualising and understanding mathematics educational research on social, political and cultural aspects. To do so we will explain the idea of arenas of new conflicts over inequality. We will then use the theoretical framework to categorise previous mathematics educational research by way of example and re-read it against the background of these new conflicts. Finally, we will analyse data from an own empirical study on practices in early mathematics education to show its heuristic potential.