Cultural Power and Silence: A Postcolonial Analysis of the Circle and Pi in Chinese and Malaysian Mathematics Textbooks
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Mathematics is often perceived as a neutral and universal discipline.Foundational concepts such as the circle and π are typically presented devoid of cultural, historical, or ideological context.This study uses postcolonial discourse analysis to compare how the circle and π are represented in three official middle school mathematics textbooks from China (Renjiao and Shanghai editions) and Malaysia (Form 2).It investigates how cultural narratives are constructed or suppressed through visual framing, language, and historical narration.Employing qualitative textual analysis and a four-dimensional analytical framework-cultural embeddedness, π narration, visual-linguistic style, and cultural silence-the study reveals striking contrasts.Chinese textbooks engage in epistemic reterritorialization (D'Ambrosio, 1985), embedding π within a national lineage featuring Zu Chongzhi and Liu Hui, and employing symbolic imagery such as ancient bridges, round fans, and porcelain.The Malaysian textbook adopts a strategy of cultural neutrality, producing what Spivak (1988) terms epistemic silence by omitting Indian and Islamic contributions and presenting π as a context-free constant.The study argues that mathematics textbooks are not apolitical tools but sites of knowledge politics.As Said (1978) notes, the question of who narrates history is a matter of cultural sovereignty.This research calls for reflexive, pluralist approaches to mathematics education-ones that restore erased epistemologies and allow students to encounter mathematics as a culturally alive and historically situated discipline.
Authors: Qi Yao, Abdul Halim Abdullah
Institution: University of Technology Malaysia
Language: English
Subfield: Theoretical Computer Science
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411326125