Abstract:
This paper explores practices of schooling-in-number which produce 'ethical erasure' (Skovsmose 2011) and normalise inequality in the work that numbers do, to draw links between these discursive practices and those of both the 19th century military and a neoliberal numbers-as-policy (Lingard, 2011) regime. This argument follows that in Ocean and Skourdoumbis (2016) which traced the descent of a military discourse in mathematics from West Point Military Academy in the US to public universities and schools in the mid-19th century. Through prolific production of mathematics textbooks (Ocean and Skourdoumbis, 2016), the instigation of tracking/setting in the mathematics classes of public high schools (Ellerton & Clements, 2012), and the military instructional practices of teaching staff (Hacker 1989, Dupuy 1958), discursive practices of military training emerged in school mathematics. The paper some discusses some practices of 19th century military training which are still evident in public mathematics education, such as reductionist calculations, dissection of the curriculum, ranking by means of tracking/setting/streaming, and ability-grouping accompanied by restricted curricula.
The paper then argues that such discursive practices of schooling in number also appear in neoliberal governance regimes which govern-through-numbers. Reductionist calculations are shown, for example, in standardized testing of school students (Gorur, 2015; Gorur & Wu, 2015) and the traffic-light measures of scholarship employed in some prestigious Australian universities. The effects of ranking, evidenced by league tables of schools, universities, teachers, scholars and nations, are accounted for by many scholars (see Sellar & Lingard, 2013; Angus, 2015; Connell, 2013; Kenway, 2013). A prevailing perception of mathematics as 'neutral', as 'value-free', allows these technologies of governance to pass below the threshold of visibility. However, I suggest that schooling-in-number has discursive roots in the experience of coming-to-be a military officer. This discourse in mathematics is so pervasive that even successful mathematics students attribute their success to compliance, conformance, and loss of identity and agency (Boaler & Greeno, 2000).
The paper concludes that the subjectivities produced through schooling in number in current times are ethically neutered and rank-obsessed; they are the military subjectivities of Harvey's (2010) 'hollow men', who, without thinking, without intending to, reproduce the world that produced them. Harvested by neoliberal governance regimes, these military subjectivities produced for and in school mathematics monitor, manage and direct people through numbers. Thus schooling in numbers operates as a strategic element of a military logic. The paper concludes that this 'engineering of conduct' (Rose and Miller, 2013) within school mathematics produces us well-schooled in the language and regulatory devices of governance-by-numbers when we encounter neoliberalism's numbers-as-policy regime.
The paper then argues that such discursive practices of schooling in number also appear in neoliberal governance regimes which govern-through-numbers. Reductionist calculations are shown, for example, in standardized testing of school students (Gorur, 2015; Gorur & Wu, 2015) and the traffic-light measures of scholarship employed in some prestigious Australian universities. The effects of ranking, evidenced by league tables of schools, universities, teachers, scholars and nations, are accounted for by many scholars (see Sellar & Lingard, 2013; Angus, 2015; Connell, 2013; Kenway, 2013). A prevailing perception of mathematics as 'neutral', as 'value-free', allows these technologies of governance to pass below the threshold of visibility. However, I suggest that schooling-in-number has discursive roots in the experience of coming-to-be a military officer. This discourse in mathematics is so pervasive that even successful mathematics students attribute their success to compliance, conformance, and loss of identity and agency (Boaler & Greeno, 2000).
The paper concludes that the subjectivities produced through schooling in number in current times are ethically neutered and rank-obsessed; they are the military subjectivities of Harvey's (2010) 'hollow men', who, without thinking, without intending to, reproduce the world that produced them. Harvested by neoliberal governance regimes, these military subjectivities produced for and in school mathematics monitor, manage and direct people through numbers. Thus schooling in numbers operates as a strategic element of a military logic. The paper concludes that this 'engineering of conduct' (Rose and Miller, 2013) within school mathematics produces us well-schooled in the language and regulatory devices of governance-by-numbers when we encounter neoliberalism's numbers-as-policy regime.