The theory of objectification: a Vygotskian perspective on knowing and becoming in mathematics teaching and learning

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Notes

1 It is interesting to mention that the presentation of the theory in the book is itself organised in a very consistent way by beginning from the Abstract (knowledge as movement, an abstract potentiality) to the Concrete (the ethical components of teaching and learning).

2 We can find in the book, also, references to many contemporary interesting authors and thinkers from this tradition such as Terry Eagleton, Raymond Williams, Franck Fischback and Maurice Godelier, coming from different intellectual fields.

3 Concepts of objectification and subjectivation which are at the core of the learning process are often described in phenomenological terms. Indeed, phenomenology seems to have a particular place in the theory of objectification. It is sometimes decried as an individualistic way of conceiving consciousness, but, at the same time, we can find important theoretical elaborations based on “results” from the phenomenological tradition (references for instance to Husserl, Heidegger, Levinas, Henry, Arendt and implicitly to Merleau-Ponty). There is even sometimes the convocation of a proper phenomenological stance and language (for instance for the valorization of affectivity and the important place accorded to the fundamental sensuous aspect of joint-labour, but also the notion of being and becoming and its relations to the ethical project that is formulated through a kind of phenomenological investigation of otherness). Let’s say that the articulation of phenomenology with dialectical materialism is not an easy task, and the position here toward phenomenology, as productive as it is within the theory of objectification, remains ambiguous.

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Notes on contributors

David Guillemette

David Guillemette is an associate professor at the Department of Mathematics of the Université du Québec à Montréal. From a cultural-historical perspective in mathematics education, his research interests focus on the historical, cultural, social and political dimensions of mathematics in the context of teachers’ education.