ABSTRACT
In this chapter we explore authoring as the means through which a learner acquires facility in using community-validated mathematical knowledge and skills. As an author, the learner uses his or her mathematical voice to enquire, interrogate and reflect upon what is being learned and how. What does it mean to say that a learner of mathematics is an author? For the majority of classrooms, authorship appears to be vested in the mathematicians who determine what is to be learned, and the texts through which that mathematics is conveyed. We believe that such a view ignores what is known about the process of coming to know, which, far from being one of cultural transmission, is necessarily one of interpretation and meaning negotiation in the context of current personal ‘knowing’ as well as knowledge situated in the community. This we believe to be a lifelong struggle to accord meanings to the narratives that describe the personal, the socio-cultural and, inevitably, the political. Without such meanings, it is difficult to make sense of why so many people fail in, or discard, their attempts to learn mathematics and, in particular, why so many of these unsuccessful learners are predominantly found in particular communities.
