BETWEEN DATA, DIALOGUES AND TERRITORIES: A MATHEMATICAL ACTIVITY AT THE INTERFACE OF CRITICAL MATHEMATICS EDUCATION, PAULO FREIRE AND EDUCATION OF THE COUNTRYSIDE

Abstract

This article analyzes the potential and limitations of a mathematical activity based on the film Narradores de Javé and on socio-environmental conflicts involving dams and communities of the countryside. The study connects Critical Mathematics Education learning environments, Freirean categories of dialogue, problematization, reading the world and praxis, and principles of Education of the Countryside related to territory, memory, work and collective participation. This qualitative documentary study examines six Probability and Statistics tasks produced in an undergraduate Mathematics teacher education course. The analysis considered the type of reference, pedagogical paradigm, investigative openness, presence of mathematical knowledge, and opportunities for participation by subjects of the countryside. The results revise previous classifications and show that the tasks move between exercises and landscapes of investigation. Advances were identified in connecting data with social problems, but the activity still relies on ready-made data, fictional situations and limited community participation. The study concludes that the activity’s critical potential depends on problematizing data sources, collectively producing data and transforming mathematical results into arguments and actions concerning the territory.