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• An Objectivist Critique of Relativism in Mathematics Education
• Turning Vygotsky on His Head: Vygotsky’s ‘Scientifically Based Method’ and the Socioculturalist’s ‘Social Order’
• A Critical Assessment of Dewey’s Attack on Dualism

Rowlands S., Graham E. and Berry J., 2001, An Objectivist Critique of Relativism in Mathematics Education. Science and Education, 10, pp 215 - 241
Many constructivists tag as 'absolutist' references to mathematics as an abstract body of knowledge, and stake out the moral high ground with the argument that mathematics is not only utilised oppressively but that mathematics is, in-itself, oppressive. With much reference to Ernest's (1991) Philosophy of Mathematics Education this tag has been justified on the grounds that if mathematics is a social-cultural creation that is mutable and fallible then it must be social acceptance that confers the objectivity of mathematics. This paper argues that mathematics, albeit a social-cultural creation that is mutable and fallible, is a body of knowledge the objectivity of which is independent of origin or social acceptance. Recently, Ernest (1998) has attempted to express social constructivism as a philosophy of mathematics and has included the category of logical necessity in his elaboration of the objectivity of mathematics. We argue that this inclusion of logical necessity not only represents a U-turn, but that the way in which Ernest has included this category is an attempt to maintain his earlier position that it is social acceptance that confers the objectivity of mathematics.

Rowlands S., 2000, Turning Vygotsky on His Head: Vygotsky’s ‘Scientifically Based Method’ and the Socioculturalist’s ‘Social Order’. Science and Education, Vol. 9, pp 537-575
Vygotsky has become an authority, but the authority has more to do with justifying a sociocultural relativism than it has with his Marxist objectivist approach to psychology and pedagogy. This paper is an attempt to understand Vygotsky’s perspective in relation to Marxist epistemology, and will critically examine the sociocultural interpretation of Vygotsky but within the light of his own perspective. It will be shown that the relativism of the sociocultural school not only takes Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development out of its social and historical context, but as a consequence downplays the zone of proximal development as a dynamic research methodology. As an extension of the discussion of the zone of proximal development, this paper will also examine the sociocultural interpretation of Vygotsky’s relation between scientific and everyday concepts, and the pedagogical consequences of such an interpretation.

Carson R.N. and Rowlands S., 2001, A Critical Assessment of Dewey’s Attack on Dualism. Journal of Educational Thought, 35 No 1, pp 27-60
This paper examines John Dewey’s critique of idealism in The Quest for Certainty (1929) and other works and argues that his case was overstated and pedagogically misleading. While dualism has often been regarded primarily as a metaphysical doctrine, its positive value historically has been as a heuristic device, a mode of intellectual scaffolding that reifies thought itself and makes possible instruction in logic, reflective thought, and formal argumentation. A more sympathetic reading of the history looks at classical philosophers and their modern counterparts as workers who contributed to the world rather than hid from it in a realm of idealized perfection. The consequences for education of Dewey’s attack on idealism are also examined.