Variations on the phenomenology of knowing and understanding mathematics
Subtitle: through (the lens of) relationship
By: Yuichi Handa.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 227
Subjects: Mathematics.; Learning.; Comprehension.; Mathematics -- Study and teaching -- Philosophy.
Description: In a number of European languages, including French, Spanish, German, and even Latin, there is a distinction that is made in 'ways of knowing' that in the English language has become collapsed into the singular word 'know.' To take for example, the French, there is 'savoir' and 'connaitre'. To know in the 'savoir' sense is to know things, facts, names, how and why things work, and so on, but to know in the 'connaitre' sense is to know a person, a place, or even a thing---namely, an 'other'---in such a way that one is 'familiar with,' or 'in relationship with' this other. In mathematics education, the focus generally tends to be on how learners and teachers know mathematics in the 'savoir' sense, and rarely (if explicitly) in this other 'connaitre' manner. Of course, part of the reason for this may be in the absence of a clear image of what a 'connaitre' manner of knowing mathematics would look like. In light of such a state of affairs, I ask the following research question: what might it mean to say that a person is in relationship with mathematics, or knows mathematics in a way that would not preclude a 'connaitre' manner of knowing? Primarily through phenomenological reflection with a touch of empirical input, I flesh out an image for a person's 'connaitre' knowing of mathematics. In this undertaking, I turn to a 'hermeneutic phenomenological approach to human science research and writing' (Van Manen, 1990) that pairs the interpretive/hermeneutic tradition with the descriptive/phenomenological orientation in researching pedagogically related phenomenon. Because my own interests are educational---and in particular, pedagogical in nature---I turn to mathematics teachers and teacher educators to help clarify this image of a 'connaitre' way of knowing. At the same time, I would point out that this is not a study of teachers, but of the phenomenon of relationship to mathematics. Yet, once the theoretical machinery has been set up, I will argue that explication of the phenomenon is indeed relevant to the act of teaching and of meaning-making for a teacher. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Notes: Principal faculty advisor: James Hiebert, School of Education.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-227).

Reproduction (photocopy) :Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Dissertation Services, 2007. 22 cm.