Abstract
This research aims to respond, with scholars from other countries, to the same problem as earlier studies developed in Brazil: which epistemological teaching conception underlies teaching, particularly in Mathematics? The specific objective is to survey epistemological conceptions of foreign teachers to know whether they are in line with those found in Brazil - which are predominantly empiricist, sometimes supported by aprioristic conceptions, and rarely constructivist. The final objective is to provide background to transform Mathematics teaching. Seventeen teachers from three South American countries were interviewed, using a 24-question script. This text presents their answers to the first three questions. Basically, the same epistemological conceptions found in Brazil were identified, considering the nature, transmission, and genesis of mathematical knowledge. They are similar in terms of the lack of concern with the genesis of mathematical knowledge, the belief in the transmission of this science's concepts, the nature of this knowledge and the presence of empiricist and aprioristic epistemological conceptions. Nevertheless, they differ regarding the somewhat intense presence of epistemological conceptions that are critical (although sometimes unconsciously) towards their repercussions in teaching, in the learning conceptions of the pertinent contents, and in the insistent concern with the practical application of that knowledge. The theoretical framework that guides the analysis is Jean Piaget's Genetic Epistemology, especially his work on reflective abstraction, focused on pseudo-empirical abstraction. The myths criticized that Mathematics is present in everything; that human beings are born mathematicians and that, as such, they are products of the social pressure school education exerts. Similarly, the low valuation of the subject's action in the construction of that knowledge is criticized.
Keywords:
Construction of Mathematical Knowledge; Epistemology of the Mathematics Teacher; Mathematical Knowledge Transmission; Mathematical Knowledge Genesis