One of the criticisms of standard teaching practices is that they support merely ‘ritual’ as opposed to ‘principled’ knowledge, that is, knowledge which is procedural rather than being founded on principled explanation. This paper addresses issues and assumptions in current debate concerning the nature of mathematical knowledge, focusing on the ritual/principle distinction. Taking a discussion of centralism in logic and mathematics as its start-point, it seeks to resolve these issues through an examination of mathematics as a community of practice and (...) the teacher's role as epistemological authority in inducting pupils into such practices. (shrink)

An application of Young's Habermasian critical theory of education to classroom communication problems of teachers in schools, with a special focus on the question/answer cycle and its educational role. The book uses classroom transcripts extensively in the analysis.