Transitions from school mathematics to university mathematics – an international variable for educational policies

Abstract

The approach of coloniality to analyse the impact of political-cultural power structures on mathematics teaching is currently being discussed in mathematics education, especially in Latin America. In particular, one affirms there a hierarchy between the mathematical knowledge that is to be taught in the different educational levels, and is lamenting the hierarchy: as an effect of coloniality and as an expression of a global, Eurocentric hegemony. However, such relationships between the different content parts of the educational structure have been established in each country in a specific way, that is, according to the forms in which the educational system had emerged in that country. Whether hierarchies are implied has to be investigated for each case separately. The core of the differences is constituted by the structural functions achieved in Modern Times by the former Artes Faculty of Medieval Times. It depended on these functions which requirements were instituted for the transition from secondary level to higher education and which authority had to decide whether the requirements were met. In particular, the paper will discuss how the different paths for the transition from secondary to higher education have also shaped different structures of school mathematics and to what extent power mechanisms and hierarchies can be proven in them.