Chapter 8: Humor in E(a)rnest

Paul Ernest has laid out an ambitious agenda in seeking and applying the socially constructed underpinnings of a field that has been perceived by many as strictly axiomatic, logical, and rule bound. In addition to his other writings, many new questions, debates, and analyses about the nature of teaching, learning and doing mathematics—and about the nature of mathematics itself—emerged as a result of his editing POME, the Journal of Philosophy of Mathematics Education.

This article picks up on and expands upon the concluding theme in a recent POME essay of mine—that of humor. In that essay I stood on its head what was perceived by western educators to be shortcomings in the mathematical thinking of members of the Kpelle tribe (Brown, 2007). There I sought to understand the strengths of grasping the world through their eyes—story-telling (and especially gaining kudos by exaggerating stories).¹