This book seeks to address the question of how the task of teaching
mathematics to young children might be better understood. But rather
than starting out with a conception of mathematics derived from the many
histories mathematics might claim as its own we centre the analysis
instead within the social practices that surround the teaching of the
subject to children aged four to eleven in English primary schools
today. That is, we do not commence with an a priori conception of
mathematics and see what people are saying about it. Rather, we start
from what people are saying and see where this points. We probe how the
desires of society have manifested themselves in a societal decision to
teach mathematics and how this decision now shapes that which is called
"mathematics". We focus on the operation of the noun "mathematics" and
verb "mathematical" and consider how the meanings of these terms derive
from the social domain in which they are being used. This extends and
develops a conception of how language intervenes in the task of
mathematics education presented elsewhere (Brown, 2001). In this present
book however, we have a particular focus on trainee and newly qualified
teachers, with a view to pinpointing how this conception of mathematics
manifests itself in their evolving practices. We question how such
teachers with many years of experience as a pupil in school might now
re-orient themselves towards the demands of teaching mathematics in
schools.