Inclusive citizenship through mathematics education: a conceptual investigation

Abstract

Citizenship is a contested concept that can be interpreted from different – and also conflicting – perspectives. Inspired by inclusive mathematics education, we try to illustrate what it could mean to work toward inclusive citizenship. We illustrate the idea of inclusive mathematics education, showing how deaf and hearing students can learn together. We interpret inclusive mathematics education as ‘meetings amongst differences’. This interpretation inspires us to see meetings amongst differences in a broader perspective. Such meetings can be considered fundamental to the process of establishing inclusive citizenship. We elaborate on this idea by exemplifying how meetings across national, economic, cultural and existential differences can be established in mathematics education. We conclude that, to work toward inclusive citizenship, it is important to establish dialogues across distances; to make students interested in and able to see situations and problems from perspectives different from their own; to construct tolerance as an expression of shared concerns; and finally, to challenge any form of We–Other dichotomy.