Chapter 5: The Scope and Limits of Critical Mathematics Education¹

In the past 25 years these is one scholar above others who has brought critical mathematics education (CME) into prominence in our field, and that is Ole Skovsmose. Starting with his 1985 paper he asked why mathematics education (ME) not only ignores critical education but why, at that time, it also seemed incompatible with it (Skovsmose, 1985). Although there were already social, political, and social justice issues (especially gender) on the agenda (e.g., Bishop, 1988; D'Ambrosio, 1985; Fennema & Sherman, 1977; Howson & Griffiths, 1974; Mellin-Olsen, 1987; Sells, 1978), no-one had yet explicitly linked critical theory (CT) and the Frankfurt school with ME in the Anglophone research literature.