Bright lights and questions: Using mutual interrogation

Abstract

Bound to a hard chair in a darkened room. The chilling smell of fear. Click, and a spotlight blazes into your eyes. The interrogation is about to begin. But this interrogation will be different. This is mutual interrogation. Mutual interrogation? Surely that is oxymoronic? We do not think so. Mutual interrogation is a methodology for ethnomathematical investigation. We wish to be able to ask each other penetrating questions about mathematical systems of knowledge. Think of a culturally specific practice such as stonewalling, basket weaving, or building a house in urban America. These are systems of knowledge in their own right, but we can recognise a mathematical character within them. The mathematical aspects may not reflect mathematics as we know it – indeed, the cultural practice may embody alternative conceptions of quantity, relationships, or space. We are searching, therefore, for a methodology and a technique that will allow us to put mathematics and stonewalling into parallel. We wish to illuminate differences in a way that can potentially enhance either (or both) systems. Alangui proposes mutual interrogation as the way to retain cultural integrity.