The philosophy of Mathematics Education
Once the rules of demarcation of the discipline are established in this way, then it can legitimately be claimed that mathematics is neutral and value free. For in place of values there are rules which determine what is admissible. Preferences, choices, social implications and all other expressions of values are all eliminated by explicit and objective rules. In fact, the values lie behind the choice of the rules, making them virtually unchaUengeable. For by Legitimating only the formal level of discourse as mathematics, it relegates the issue of values to a realm which is definitionally outside of mathematics.
If this criticism is accepted, at the heart of at heart of the absolutist neutral view of mathematics is a set of values and a cultural perspective, as well as an ideology which renders them invisible.
Having identified above which values and whose culture, there is a further question to ask. Whose interests do they serve? Britain and the West are largely ruled by white males from or in the upper of society. Most sectors of employment and power have a pyramidal hierarchical structure, with the upper strata dominated by this group. Thus for example, among university mathematicians, the group who serve to define the subject, it is white males of the middle and upper classes who overwhelmingly predominate.