This book presents a systematic account of a sociocultural theory: the theory of objectification.
The theory of objectification seeks to overcome the long-standing Western tradition that conceives of learning as the result of subjective experience. This notion of learning can be traced back to the 18th century where the child was imagined as a naturalistic being already endowed with her own potentialities. In this line of thought, what is required for the child to learn is merely a conducive environment. In our times, this conception of learning has been epitomised by child-centred pedagogies and, more recently, by the various forms of constructivism (e.g., psychological, social, radical). In these educational approaches learning remains, however, blind to considerations of a societal, cultural, historical, and political nature. As a result, learning is abstracted from the antagonistic and conflicting forces of society and ends up portrayed as a sanitised process where what remains is merely reified subjective experience. Moving away from the naturalistic and subjectivist premises of the child-centred pedagogy and constructivism, the theory of objectification is an invitation to envision learning as a genuine collective cultural-historical process.
The perspective on learning to be explored in this book depends, of course, on how the collective is conceptualised. It could be argued, indeed, that, one way or the other, learning involves some sort of collective—even in the pedagogical model of direct or transmissive teaching. The collective that the theory of objectification brings to the fore does not refer here to an assemblage of individuals—Piagetian-like monads in interaction—idiosyncratically negotiating their own meanings. It refers rather to individuals who, headed to the satisfaction of communal needs, work together (most of the time with tensions, conflicts, and contradictions); individuals—teachers, students—who, in working together, learn together and co-produce themselves against the always contested background of culture and history. What glues the individuals of a collective together is cultural-historical activity.
The theory of objectification finds its inspiration in Hegel’s and Marx’s philosophies, the seminal work of L. S. Vygotsky and his collaborators, and Freire’s concept of education. Its goal is twofold:
- –First, to offer a precise theoretical conception of learning as a genuine collective agentic cultural-historical process.
- –Second, to explore the practical pedagogical conditions that make genuine collective learning possible.
In this sense, the theory of objectification is more than a lens through which to look at, and interpret, learning phenomena. It is also an invitation to transform pedagogical practices and to transform the classroom into a site where students can encounter cultural knowledges and voices in deep conceptual ways while at the same time making the experience of collective life, solidarity, plurality, and inclusivity.
A prolegomenon to such a task is an entire reconceptualisation of teachers and students. Blurring the customary borders that, in other approaches, separate teachers and students, the theory of objectification moves beyond the concept of the teacher as a patriarch of knowledge—a sort of coach helping the students grasp curricular contents through scaffolding or other strategies. The theory of objectification articulates the idea of teachers and students as beings in flux, as unfinished and continuously evolving projects of life, in search of themselves, co-producing themselves every day as they engage ethically in a same endeavour where they suffer, struggle, and find enjoyment and fulfillment together.
This book grew out of discussions, conferences presentations, and seminars to researchers and undergraduate and graduate students conducted in various countries. It capitalises on the cultural diversity of the audiences. It also capitalises on the sustained work with prospective teachers and in-service teachers and their students in Canada over a span of more than 20 years. It is, indeed, in the arena of concrete classrooms that the questions that led to the theory were formulated. The polemics that the aforementioned discussions and presentations engendered at home and abroad are unavoidably a part of the concepts that came to form the core of the theory of objectification. These concepts are bearers of dissident voices and perspectives.
Some of the ideas presented in the book are revisions, refinements, and expansions of ideas that appeared in previous papers. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 have their origin in my paper “Three key concepts of the theory of objectification” published in the Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 2(1), 7–44, 2013, following a one-week seminar organised by Oh Nam Kwon in South Korea. Chapter 6 is an expanded and modified version of “The eye as a theoretician,” published in For the Learning of Mathematics, 30(2), 2–7, 20101 and prepared first for a seminar organised by Bernadete Morey at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The last chapter of this book includes passages from an in-press paper that will appear in the book “Ética: entre educación y filosofía” to be published by Ediciones Uniandes, Colombia, after a seminar organised by Maritza Silva Acuña at the Universidad Católica Silva Henriquez in Santiago de Chile and a paper recently published in a Special Issue of the Revista Colombiana de Matemática Educativa, edited by Rodolfo Vergel and Isaias Miranda. I am grateful to the publishers for the permission to use those materials.
I hope that this book will make a contribution to education in general and mathematics education in particular. I wish to thank Sandra Siren and Andrew Sanderson for their help in the preparation of the book. I also want to acknowledge the continued support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada/Le conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada (SSHRC/CRSH), and the Laurentian University Research Fund.