The sociopolitical turn in mathematics education and decolonial theory

Abstract

This literature review examines how the theoretical perspectives aligned to the sociopolitical turn in mathematics inform social justice mathematics education. While existing literature has established the importance of social justice frameworks informed by critical theory, there has been limited exploration of critical race theory, poststructuralism and feminist theory, perspectives that offer a broader and more complex understanding of the social and political. After examining how these perspectives contribute to social justice mathematics, we explore the potential contributions of decolonial theory, particularly the way it unsettles accepted notions of social justice. By drawing and building on the sociopolitical turn in mathematics education, this article argues that decolonial thought can also assist in reimagining social justice mathematics education theoretically, methodologically and pedagogically. Ultimately, the article argues that there is no social justice without cognitive/epistemic and ontological justice, meaning that social justice loses ethical and political weight when modernity’s violent epistemic and ontological foundations are not questioned by social justice mathematics education research.

Keywords

• sociopolitical turn
• social justice
• epistemic justice
• mathematics education
• decolonial theory
• coloniality