Anarchist Mathematics Education : Ethic, Motivation, and Praxis

Anarchists and (mathematics) education researchers generally share convergent interests regarding social (in)equality—that is to say, both groups share a concern over noticing inequality and making efforts to pursue social justice. In this dissertation, I employ three tenets of anarchism (cooperation; mutual aid; freedom from unjustified, coercive hierarchy) to formulate and live out the beginnings of a mathematics education research approach rooted anarchism, in pursuit of the larger goal of developing cohesion between my anarchist worldview and the possible/probable products of a career in research. In so doing, I aim to simultaneously: (1) Respond productively to critiques of mathematics education as atheoretical, (2) articulate one possible cohesion between anarchist worldview and research methods, (3) unsettle some of the taken-for-granted assumptions of the mathematics education research community, and (4) invite others into more radical forms of anti-oppressive research and praxis.