Todo comenz por el inters en estudiar la influencia de la extinta Repblica Democrtica

Alemana (RDA) en la educacin matemtica de Cuba. Debido a la escasa, por no decir ninguna,
literatura acadmica sobre el tema disponible en nuestro pas. Por qu ocuparse de este tema? Porque
Cuba nos supera en todas las pruebas de matemticas donde hemos participado conjuntamente. Tales
son los casos del estudio comparativo LLECE y de la Olimpiada Iberoamericana de Matemtica
(OIM). En el primer estudio comparativo del LLECE en Lengua y Matemtica, Cuba supera a todos los
pases latinoamericanos por un amplio margen, y nosotros ocupamos el penltimos lugar. En la OIM,
casi todas y todos los estudiantes cubanos suelen ganar medallas de oro y plata, mientras que nuestros
estudiantes no son tan exitosos. La lectura de algunos materiales sobre enseanza de las matemticas en
Cuba revelan una influencia notable de la extinta RDA.

En la bsqueda en internet sobre informacin acerca de la educacin matemtica de la RDA,

apareci un artculo sobre la ideologa socialista en los textos escolares de matemticas. En este
artculo el autor sostiene que los textos escolares de matemticas en la RDA tienen un alto contenido
ideolgico. Al leer el resumen, me plantee la siguiente pregunta: Es el contenido ideolgico exclusivo
de los textos escolares de matemticas de los pases socialistas? Entonces me propuse escribir un
artculo para responder esa pregunta.

Con esta pregunta propuesta el objetivo de las bsquedas por internet cambi. Ahora busco
literatura sobre textos escolares de matemticas e ideologa, aunque la bsqueda no se restringe a estos
libros en particular. Retom un trabajo que haba escrito sobre la investigacin realizada en el Instituto
Pedaggico Rural El Mcaro sobre textos escolares. Adems, desempolv unos materiales sobre textos
escolares que tena en mi biblioteca. Por ltimo, seleccione dos series de textos escolares de
matemticas de Cuarto a Sexto Grado de Educacin Primaria. Con esas herramientas en la mano me
propuse emprender la tarea de responder a la pregunta propuesta.

2. Mathematics teaching in the GDR

School in the former GDR was a part of the political system. The task of the whole of education
consisted in forming young people to become convinced socialist citizens according to the programme
of the former socialist party (SED).This meant that the teachers in the "socialistic comprehensive
school" ("Sozialistische Einheitsschule") should see their job as a political task for the working class.
From this political point of view they had to devote all their energies of teaching to the ideological
upbringing of their pupils. But experience shows that the majority of teachers first of all had regard to
the needs of their students and tried to help them to develop their abilities through mathematics
education.
The specific function of mathematics teaching was:
to provide pupils with knowledge of fundamental mathematical concepts, theorems, rules,
methods, procedures and their relationships, and with the ability to solve internal and external
mathematical problems. This should guarantee a powerful basis for an autonomous extension of
their mathematical education later on;
to use experiences of the acquisition and application of mathematical knowledge for the
development of the students' personality with respect to their ways of thinking;
the development of a positive attitude and a readiness for intellectual work. As a result: the
students should be interested in mathematics and should take pleasure in working on problems,
in overcoming difficulties, in working alone and in a team; they should be honest in their
attitude, proud but also modest in their success.
In general, they should understand the role of mathematics as "part of the recognition process in
the social practice".
These goals directed the further development of mathematics education until the end of the 80's for the
10-year Oberschule. Decisions about the selection of the subject areas and goals were made in
accordance with the following principles:

Mathematics education
should be pedagogically oriented to mathematics as a scientific discipline,
should put emphasis on the ability to use mathematics for internal and external applications on
the basis of sound acquired knowledge,
should develop mathematical and general abilities such as the ability to describe, to justify, to
prove, to use mathematical symbols and to use the mother tongue correctly in mathematical
contexts from the first day of school onwards.
The contents of mathematics education in grade 1 - 10 were:
natural numbers, fractions, rational numbers,
elementary geometrical structures such as points, straight lines, segments, triangles, four-sided
figures, circles and their main characteristics,
simple solids, their surface area, their volume, and their representation in the plane,
linear, quadratic, exponential and trigonometric functions; linear and quadratic equations, linear
inequalities, linear systems of equations, studied in a systematic way,
the formulation of rules and the development of methods, with definitions of concepts, proofs of
theorems and a consequent use of mathematical language.
A particular feature of the educational system of the GDR was that there was always just one series of
textbooks for mathematics education including teaching aids for every school year. All these materials
were oriented towards the syllabus as the central document, which was divided into separate learning
sequences for the planning of teaching. It also included relatively detailed comments for motivation
and reinforcement.

There were also uniform orientations for teaching. These were based on the realization of specific
functions of mathematics teaching such as:
motivating all students to active and intellectual discussion of the subject in all phases of
teaching,
 working on problems/tasks as main objects (these tasks should be a complex process, combining
the activity of teacher and pupil, and not just focused on their solution),
enabling the students to use mathematics,
the opinion that reinforcement (such as practice, revision and systematization) is the
fundamental basis of all mathematics education.

Herbert Henning (s.a.) Changes in mathematics education through the reunification of Germany.
Disponible en: http://www.history.didaktik.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de/meg/mathedb3.html#GDR

Curriculum Developments in the former GDR and in the new

states
Curriculum changes in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) were influenced by changes of
the school system and the general goals of "Socialistic education". The introduction of the "Socialistic
comprehensive school" (Sozialistische Einheitschule) from grade 1 to 10 meant teaching mathematics
for all.

The Mathematikbeschlu from 1962

The resolution of the "Politbro" from 1962 (Mathematikbeschlu) established measures for the
improvement and the development of mathematics education. As a result, the syllabus was changed. It
put now emphasis on "leading lines" (Leitlinien), e.g.:
reasoning,
numbers,
functions and mappings,
equations and inequalities.
A "settheoretical penetration" (Mengentheoretische Durchdringung) was typical. In geometry teaching
the idea of symmetry became more important under the use of transformations. Compared with the
Nrnberg syllabus it was more modest: Algebra was done without structures, and geometry without
algebraic notions such as vectors, determinants, and matrices.

Ingo Weidig (s.a.) About the history of mathematics teaching in Germany. Disponible en:
http://www.history.didaktik.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de/meg/mathedb2.html

Existen textos escolares de matemticas ideolgicamente neutros?

Julio Mosquera

Autores como Rodden (2009) argumentan que una de las caractersticas resaltantes de
los textos escolares de matemticas en los pases socialistas es su alto componente
ideolgico. La otra cara de este argumento pareciera ser que los textos escolares de
matemticas en los pases occidentales, y en sus dependencias, estn libres de toda
 carga ideolgica. El principal objetivo de este trabajo es demostrar que el argumento
anterior es falso, es decir, demostrar que todos los textos escolares de matemticas
responden a intereses polticos especficos. En particular analiz el enunciado de los
problemas propuestos en dos series de textos escolares venezolanos para los primeros
grados de la Educacin Primaria. El anlisis de estos problemas revela una alta carga
ideolgica donde se promueven los valores propios de una sociedad capitalista, como
son el consumismo, el individualismo y el machismo entre otros.

Por qu ocuparse de los textos escolares, como seala Greaney ():

The sheer amount of time students devote to textbooks underscores their importance. One
study reported that U.S. Secondary school teachers devote three quarters of their classroom
time to textbooks; textbooks also account for 90 percent of homework time (Apple 1991).
Books have an especially crucial role to play in developing countries, where teachers
mastery of subjects may be weak and teachers themselves may have no access to national
curriculum documents (Greaney 1996). Indeed, access to textbooks has been identified as
one of the most effective ways that schools can raise academic achievement (Hanushek
1995; Heyneman and Loxley 1983; Lundberg and Linnakyla 1992). (p. 1)
Rodden (2009) comienza su artculo sobre los usos de la ideologa en los textos escolares en la
ex-Repblica Democrtica Alemana (RDA) de la manera siguiente:
When you see how they [East German educators] twisted even arithmetic exercises for
first-graders into ideological lessons," a retired professor of mathematics in the former
German Democratic Republic (GDR) once said to me, "you know they were serious about
inculcating the tenets of M-L [Marxism-Leninism]." He showed me a couple of East
German textbooks from the 1960s, and I immediately saw what he meant. GDR educators'
approach to mathematics ultimately resulted in a math curriculum more ideological than
even that of the Nazis. And for a simple reason very much connected with simple
arithmetic: more decades available to propagandize. Nazi educators had fewer than a
dozen years to develop their curriculum, whereas East German policy makers had more
than four decades to refine "M-L math," not to mention the advantage of drawing on
Soviet scholarship since 1917 as well as a distinguished radical German and European
legacy stretching back long before Marx and Engels. GDR educators fully exploited
math's didactic possibilities, using it to promote socialist patriotism, Marxist class-
consciousness, specific communist doctrines, and hostility towards the "imperialist" West.
 (...) SED (East German Communist Party) educators did not hesitate to exploit "M-L
math" whenever it might serve party goals: to strengthen solidarity with the working class,
promote socialist patriotism and internationalism, and deepen hatred of Western
imperialism and militarism. This essay addresses these ideological uses via diverse
examples, whose scrutiny yields an important, still relevant lesson, even though the
communist state that promoted them is now defunct.
That lesson is a simple one, and it serves as a cautionary warning for educational
policymakers everywhere, including the United States. And the warning is this: education
that becomes political "re-education"--an attempt to "makeover" human beings according
to the requirements of an ideology--undermines the freedom and dignity of the individual.
And that, in turn, ultimately undermines both the ideology and the state that champions
such a policy.

Referencias
Greaney, Vincent (s.a.) Textbooks, Respect for Diversity, and Social Cohesion. Disponible en.
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/232526/Greaney.pdf
Rodden, John (2009) Creating Young Comrades: Politics, Numbers, and the Uses of Ideology in East
German Math Textbooks. The Midwest Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 3, pp.