BETWEEN NUMBERS AND IMAGES: REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN A MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOK COLLECTION

Abstract

This article analyzes how women are represented in images from the Araribá Conecta Matemática collection, intended for the final years of Brazilian elementary education and approved by the 2024 National Textbook and Teaching Material Program. This qualitative documentary study is guided by content analysis. The corpus comprises photographs and illustrations selected from the four volumes and examined according to agency, context, racial and social diversity, and the relationship among image, text, and mathematical activity. To characterize the didactic role of the images, the study employs a typology that distinguishes epistemic, illustrative, communicative, and decorative functions. The selected material depicts women in scientific and sports practices, including Black women, but also indicates limited female visibility in references to the history of mathematics. Illustrative and communicative uses predominate, whereas the direct participation of images in the development of mathematical knowledge is less evident. The study concludes that jointly analyzing didactic function and social representation reveals possibilities and limitations of the material, while teacher mediation can broaden its critical reading through tasks that connect mathematical knowledge, data investigation, and discussion of gender and racial relations.