Mathematics education as a systems of society

Abstract

This essay explores philosophy of mathematics education from a historical sociological perspective. This examines the nature of meaning-making as social systems of mathematics and mathematics education emerge as part of society. To do this I draw on social systems theory which posits a general theory of autopoietic systems from which consciousness and communication, as systems based on meaning, are coupled through language. Systems theory has had little attention in mathematics education and my aim here is to outline the approach by presenting a cursory functional analysis of mathematics education. This allows the possibility of theorising mathematics education as a social system of communication and has the capacity to show how the constituting parts of mathematics education, for example, research and practice relate and how mathematics education is related to other social systems in contemporary society.