Abstract:
This paper is written to explore the meta-theoretical assumptions framing some interpretations of both action research and constructivist pedagogy as practised in classrooms and tertiary institutions. My concern is that such interpretations perpetuate a purely cognitive view of learning as product, taking place in an ahistorical and apolitical environment. It is my contention that such practice is likely to be constitutive of individuals who perpetuate the status quo in mathematics learning and teaching because the struggle against cultural "givens" requires more than a cognitive knowledge of the social world-it requires system-wide structures supportive of and reactive to the dialogical processes of learning which are both culturally and socio-historically determined.