Today we have a guest post from a colleague named Mathprof. The pseudonym perhaps is needed as Mathprof's colleagues might not be pleased to read all mathprof's comments. I did some very minor editing, but otherwise the content is Mathprof's.

I asked Mathprof about Alexander Coward. You can read some background here: http://alexandercoward.com/BlowingTheWhistleOnUCBerkeleyMathematics.html

Mathprof's response to me:

Nationwide, mathematics departments, higher education or otherwise, mirror his [Alexander Coward's] interpretation and description of events. He perfectly described my department. Just today, some of my students alerted me that my peers have been complaining that I try too hard and that my approach is hurting students. In their opinion, it is not proper for the teacher to try to teach - it is the student’s responsibility to try to learn. I am, supposedly, doing my students a disservice as I raise their knowledge base through the use of sound, research based, pedagogical practices by letting my students become accustomed to a style of learning they will likely never experience again.

Most mathematicians at large universities are grounded in pedagogical, epistemological, ontological, and methodological paradigms that uphold and maintain the current mathematics education paradigm. There are deep seated beliefs about what is education, who can and should access it, how it should look, and to what end. Although the socialization in this manner of thinking occurs mainly in colleges, it is often introduced in early education, as mathematics undergraduates fill most of the K12 mathematics teacher positions, and they often bring this paradigm with them. This is how the system perpetuates itself and how it constructs continuity between K-12 and higher education.

What I have learned in the few years of reading and writing extensively on this topic is that the form and function of education are completely at odds with one another. This is particularly true in mathematics. If you ask math teachers what they hope to achieve and then observe their method of approach, it is quickly evident that for the majority of teachers, form rules over function. Strategies whose function is to increase learning are aggressively de-emphasized and de-legitimized simply because they clash with the dominant paradigm view of education. This occurs both in practice and in research. Recreating their learning experience in not a means to an end, but an end onto itself. The demonstration of a superior capacity and knowledge in mathematics is the form that must rule over function. For these teachers, learning is a mere externality. Those that are meant to learn math do - everyone else learns their place. There is no maximization of exposure, customization of approach, or an intellectualization of the process. It is complete madness.

I could go on forever but I will stop. I feel bad for the guy [Alexander Coward]. It sounds like he is doing it the right way. That said, welcome to education. Watch out for gravity - you never know which way it will pull tomorrow.

-- Mathprof