Asset Details
Do you wish to reserve the book?
On whose tongue will the goddess write, in whose tongue will the state speak? Mathematics education, Tamil language, and the caste question in India
Hey, we have placed the reservation for you!
By the way, why not check out events that you can attend while you pick your title.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place the reservation. Kindly try again later.
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
On whose tongue will the goddess write, in whose tongue will the state speak? Mathematics education, Tamil language, and the caste question in India
Do you wish to request the book?
On whose tongue will the goddess write, in whose tongue will the state speak? Mathematics education, Tamil language, and the caste question in India
Please be aware that the book you have requested cannot be checked out. If you would like to checkout this book, you can reserve another copy
We have requested the book for you!
Your request is successful and it will be processed during the Library working hours. Please check the status of your request in My Requests.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place your request. Kindly try again later.
Journal Article
On whose tongue will the goddess write, in whose tongue will the state speak? Mathematics education, Tamil language, and the caste question in India
2023
Overview
Mathematics education in India is offered in one of the 22 officially recognized state languages or in English even though there are at least 270 languages with more than 10,000 speakers each. Caste, a deep-rooted structure that stratifies Indian society, is integrally linked to shaping state languages. There is minimal research from India that looks at language and mathematics education and practically none that factors in caste. Focusing on Tamil Nadu, a state with a history of anti-caste movement on the one hand and pure Tamil movement (a movement that sought to create a Tamil language with no words from other languages) on the other, this conceptual paper seeks to explore this dimension. More specifically, by using caste as an analytical framework, and by drawing on examples from the mathematics textbooks published by the Tamil Nadu State Board of Education and the experience of a few teachers and learners, the paper seeks to make a theoretical argument that the use of pure Tamil in mathematics textbooks has negative implication for socio-culturally and economically marginalized students who are solely dependent on textbooks as the only source for learning mathematics. There is a strong need for carrying out empirical work that would highlight the nuances and complexities involved in realizing ‘mother tongue’ education in mathematics, particularly for those who belong to marginalized caste-class backgrounds, and we hope that such work would emerge in the future.
