3348

Alakanani Alex Nkhwalume

philosophy of mathematics education

2014

28

social structure , Marxist social theory , ideology, , discourse , habitus

The paper adopts a social constructionist theoretical framework based on understanding social structures to examine the social and cultural experiences, which might provide the proper context for learning to take place from an African perspective. A sociological approach is used to understand how the cognitive processes and conceptual structures of adolescent learners shape their affinity towards mathematics. A Marxist social theory is called upon to locate tools for advancing this sociological approach. The argument here is that learning, from a Marxist theoretical perspective, is in the conditions that bring people together and organise a point of contact that allows for particular pieces of information to take on relevance; without the points of contact, without the relevancies, there is not learning, and there is little memory (Murphy, 1999). In this sense, learning does not belong to individual persons, but to the various discursive interactions of which they are a part. This is to suggest that learning occurs within the structures of a society and should not be measured as on the traditional assumption that it is a possession of individuals that can be found in their heads. Rather, it is the discourses that individuals engage in that provide the opportunity for learning to take place.