<b>The social representation of torture in teaching and learning mathematics: a semiotic- psychoanalytic analysis

Abstract

This article is an excerpt from a study on the mathematical thinking of pedagogy students. One of the figures used in the research is a social representation of the torture of mathematics teaching and learning process. It was observed that this figure resulted in unpleasant memories in each student, generating flaws in their reality tests. The aim of this paper was to analyze this figure as a sign of the representation of the torture in teaching and learning mathematics, a result of the research with 23 students from a private university. Two forms were analyzed: one of them consisted of writing 3 words under nine inducing pictures on Mathematics; the other, writing a composition on the subject ‘My life with Mathematics’. A semiotic-psychoanalytic reading of the words and the figure was carried out, having as a theoretical framework, the theory of the signs with Santaella matrices of languages and thought classification (visual and verbal). Peirce’s theories of perception and relevant psychoanalytic concepts were also considered. It was concluded that there were failures in reality testing, because students were caught by emotions and disturbing images experiencing moments of discomfort translated by declaratory reference associations. They were tangled in the defense mechanism of intellectualization.