This book opens up alternative ways of thinking and talking about ways in which a person can "know" a subject (in this case, mathematics), leading to a reconsideration of what it may mean to be a
teacher
of that subject.
In a number of European languages, a distinction is made in
ways of knowing
that in the English language is collapsed into the singular word know. In French, for example, to know in the
savoir
sense is to know things, facts, names, how and why things work, and so on, whereas to know in the
connaître
sense is to know a person, a place, or even a thing—namely, an
other
— in such a way that one is familiar with, or in relationship with this other. Primarily through phenomenological reflection with a touch of empirical input, this book fleshes out an image for what a person’s
knowing of mathematics might mean, turning to mathematics teachers and teacher educators to help clarify this image.