2025/04/24 by Dennis Müller, Müller, Dennis
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #00A30 #01A80 #97A40 #97B99 #97D20 #Education and Critical Thinking Development #Environmental Education and Sustainability #FOS: Mathematics #History and Overview (math.HO) #Sustainability in Higher Education
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2504.17149
openalex publication_date 2025/04/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper proposes critical pragmatism as a philosophy of sustainable mathematics education to bridge the gap between critical theory and the existing patchwork implementations. Combining existential sustainability as a holistic concept with pragmatic frameworks from the ethics in mathematics education literature creates a foundation enabling critical reflection and pragmatic implementation. We outline how their synthesis naturally leads to a three-stage implementation strategy: cultivating an ethical classroom culture, engaging with ethnomathematics, and tackling complex sustainability problems. Our critical pragmatic approach attempts to build a new philosophical perspective to equip teachers and students with the mathematical competencies, critical perspectives, and ethical grounding necessary to navigate and contribute to a sustainable future and to provide new analytic pathways.