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PUBLICATIONS: Math as Story

Perspective- education has devalued the aesthetic for definite reasons. Science has sent people to the moon, achieved a particular way of life, and electronically linked communities around the world. But it's still true that our connections need to be ethically grounded. As John Dewey (1934) said, "Every well constructed object and machine has form, but there is aesthetic form only when the object having this external form fits into a larger experience" (p. 341). I would add to the aesthetic perspective the moral obligation to fit the discrete parts of our endeavours into "a larger experience.11' Within education, because we cannot point to the big picture all the time, we section contents into manageable parts and parcel them out according to the ages and abilities of our students. But we need to be responsible for how the parts add up and what they add up to.

In the conception I offer here, the parts come together in story. One other research example: In studying kindergarten children's connection with the place in which they lived and went to school, I applied aesthetic story conventions onto the walks we took in the natural area behind their school. This was a big step in discovering my own philosophy. Its one thing to say students should connect to the place they live but its another to ask how we might bring this about.

The study's conventions included names (what shall we call this part of the forest with no path through it? Forest Of No Path, perhaps?) I also implemented such conventions as plot, suspense ("one day we'll go waaaaay down into gully, one day when we're ready") character and voice. The students made observations and told stories about the wood's paths, contours, creatures and plants. A notable byproduct of the study was that, as the children's experiences were mediated through artistic uses of the major symbol systems such as language, the processes of literacy were illuminated, The illumination and the story shapes of the processes of literacy (whether they be literary or math literacies) was one of the major findings in the past two years in my work with George and more recently, with our research assistants Dan Jarvis,Tara-Lynn Scheffel). Another concern is that we not leave the word critical behind (critical being the most popular word in education today, and one that must be realigned with aesthetic or artistic inquiry where it belongs). We've tried to take the concepts of critical looking, aesthetic or sensory experience and attention seriously in our studies of the experiences and stories of preservice math teachers here in our faculty.

We've rejected notions of the aesthetic that are mere ornamentation, designed to lure the unsuspecting person in the realm of mathematics. Instead, we have tried to see the beauty of calculation and numbers and to elicit the stories, much as in the kindergarten students I taught so as to illuminate the processes of literacy as students experiences were mediated through artistic uses of the major symbol systems such as mathematics and language, I close with a quote from Nigel Whitely (1999 117-118) who also speaks to the need for "critical looking" and says: To practice "imaginative empathy' and apply 'aesthetic discrimination'- to whatever ends-requires sensitively developed skills and abilities: it cannot be achieved readily by a 'tourist' from another discipline. Those from a whole range of.. .disciplines bring major insights and ideas into the interpretative aspect of the venture; but the 'looking' aspect requires experience and nurturing before truly critical looking-with both words rally served-comes into being where 'critical' and 'looking' are fused together and continually interrelate and inform.

I believe that looking at how and where and when and why story and math can talk and symbolize together will also require the discrete disciplines to each examine their major insights and ideas that they bring to the interpretative aspects of their ventures. I wish us all-whether we plan to hear only the keynote speakers or are attending the entire conference-a healthy relaxing and renewing experience and I'm grateful for the privilege of coming together to spend quality time talking with each other. We are a living testimony to one of Brian Boyd's key concepts. And for that I ask you to stay tuned.