Post-normal science and mathematics education in uncertain times: Educating future citizens for extended peer communities

Abstract

In this paper we argue that the academic fields of critical mathematics education and post-normal science are complementary and can provide mutual benefits for the future. Post-normal science promotes the idea of extended peer communities, through which citizens participate with knowledge and insights in urgent and complex societal issues with conflicting stakes. Meanwhile, critical mathematics education is a philosophy of mathematics education that includes attention to the central role of mathematics in a technological society, the effects of this role, and the need for epistemic dialogue in learning and teaching mathematics. We argue that a mathematics education based on these ideas can prepare students to participate in extended peer communities. We focus particularly on the uncertainty that characterises post-normal situations. Post-normal science distinguishes various characteristics of uncertainty and highlights its centrality to post-normal situations. A critical mathematics education should prepare citizens who are able to deal with the different ways in which uncertainty matters in such situations. We illustrate these ideas through brief descriptions of three classroom studies in which students discuss issues of uncertainty and risk.