Would the Real Lakatos Please Stand Up

Abstract

Although Imre Lakatos described the work published in his book Proofs and Refutations as a study of mathematical methodology, work which has been responded to and criticized by philosophers and historians of mathematics more on its own terms, a significant body of writing in the 30 years since its appearance has used it as a pertinent cognate text appropriable for school mathematics education. In this paper, we contrast the responses these two fields have generated, with an emphasis on that of mathematics education. Doing so offers a potentially salutary case study of how challenging and fraught it can be at times to undertake work at the nexus of history and philosophy on the one hand, while at the same time seeking to explore its possible relevance and significance for education. As our title suggests, we are concerned about the proliferating Lakatos personas that seem to exist, including a growing range of self-styled reform or progressive educational practices which get attributed to him.

Duoethnography: A New Research Methodology for Mathematics Education

“…Many authors have provided a range of interpretations of Lakatos's fictionalized classroom dialogue for its relevance to education (for examples of several authors' interpretations see Pimm, Beisiegel, & Meglis, 2008). Others (Nardi, 2008;Zazkis, Sinclair, & Liljedahl, 2013) have included pieces of fictionalized classroom dialogue and have interpreted them for their significance to teacher education and mathematics learning.…”