For a mathematics education beyond reproduction

Producing videos to reflect on social issues

Abstract

This study reflects on how the production of videos addressing everyday problems can contribute to understanding the world through mathematical knowledge learned in the classroom. The participants were 15 Mathematics undergraduates from the State University of Goiás, members of the Pedagogical Residency Program, in Morrinhos (GO). The meetings with the undergraduates occurred weekly, each one lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes. In them, texts on Education and Mathematics Education were discussed. Parallel to the discussion of the texts, possibilities for the production of videos were debated, considering the students, from basic education, as knowledge producers. Aiming at the production of videos, in a first moment, the pedagogical residents were shown videos about possible problematic situations of daily life analyzed from the perspective of mathematics and were given guidance on the choice of theme, script preparation, audio and video capture, and editing. 15 videos were produced by the interns and pedagogical residents whose titles were: Covid-19; Alcoholic Beverage; LGBT+ Universe; Visual Impairment; Sewage in Brazil; Agriculture/Agribusiness; Brazilian Families' Indebtedness; Hunger Map; Traffic; Digital Games, Energy Consumption; Financial Education; Work Safety. Each of the above titles contains a sequence of 03 videos. After producing the videos, teacher educators and academics discussed the learning experiences for the production of videos and how it can contribute to students' engagement in mathematics classes. Producing and guiding the production of these videos contributed to the training of mathematics teachers with different understandings about the roles of teachers and students in the classroom. The process of producing and guiding in the production of videos enabled reflections on different problems in people's lives analyzed in the light of mathematics. The guidance from teacher educators to academics and from academics to school students were essential for: choosing a problem, or a specific subject; emphasizing the importance of drawing on various sources for understanding the object of study; producing videos of higher quality; critically reflecting on everyday problems from the perspective of mathematics.