From teaching for war to acknowledging vulnerability: a cartography of gender and mistake-handling in mathematics education

Abstract This paper looks at the impact of gender on the way mistakes are managed in mathematics education. If first describes the historical interweaving of error, mathematics and gender. Subsequently, using microsociology based on a feminist and socio-constructivist paradigm, it documents and analyses both practicing and trainee mathematics teachers’ experiences of error. We identify the effects of hegemonic masculinity on contexts of mathematical teaching and learning. With respect to mistake-handling related experiences, this manifests as competitiveness and aggressiveness, which have significant ramifications for student participation, particularly in the case of women. In response, we propose metacognition-assisted solving of problems with a low floor and a high ceiling as means to move away from mathematics education for war towards the recognition of vulnerability.