Modern Traditions: reconfigurations of school mathematics in the 1960s

Abstract

Regarding school curricula as social constructions, in this paper we analyze the building up of a tradition, which goes back to the 1960s, related to the introduction of Algebra in elementary school. This tradition is presented as an inheritance of the modern mathematics movement and it is argued that the analysis of curricular innovation processes should not take into account only their proclaimed purposes, but should consider broader effects related to the breakdown of older traditions. Keywords: History of Mathematics Education. Curriculum. Modern Mathematics. Teaching of Algebra.