Democracy revisited for adults learning mathematics.

This article presents part of a larger study on potential relations between democracy and numeracy and mathematicsi teaching for adults. This study is motivated by the many challenges to democratic institutions and democratic values at local, national and international levels that I have observed in recent years. In this article. I go back to the 1980s to revisit literature on the connections between mathematics education and society, focusing on democracy. The chosen literature is not exclusively, but primarily, of Nordic origin and represents the context within which I was enculturated as a young student. Revisiting this literature and supplementing it with newer literature confirmed that the complex relations between mathematics education and democracy described by prominent scholars back in the 1980s are worth remembering and developing further, even today. Although these Nordic scholars focused on other parts of education rather than adult education, I find it relevant to consider the scholars’ descriptions of democratic aspects of numeracy and mathematics education in relation to adult education. The present article suggests a model, a frame, consisting of four boxes that can function as a pragmatic tool for analyses of democratic aspects of present-day adult education. The frame highlights that democracy can be interpreted as more than just the right to vote in elections. The frame shows two interpretations of democracy: representative democracy (RD), i.e. the rules and rights of citizens and representatives, and participatory democracy (PD), i.e. democratic participation and democratic communication among citizens in everyday life. The hope is that this frame may encourage, facilitate reflection on and influence the practice of democracy among teachers and students in adult education. To this end, the frame specifies reflections and practice both in school (IS) and outside school (OS). Examples from numeracy and mathematics instruction practice are presented, and some frame limitations are sketched out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]