This article characterizes and discusses issues which are vital concerns and actions for a mathematics teacher, such as conceptions of mathematical knowledge, teaching and learning, the relation between content and teaching methodology, the relation between individual and group work, and others. These issues have been central in teacher training and mathematics teaching activities, taking on a character of incompatible duality, or of apparent paradoxes with implications on teaching and learning. It is considered undesirable reductionism to prioritize one of the poles, or to take a multipolar stand without clarifying and understanding the epistemological problem underlying possible antagonism. Questioning some of the myths rooted in our teacher ideology may mean a reflection that will clear our doubts about difficulties established in mathematics teaching and also indicate ways to eliminate them.
Mathematics teaching; Teacher ideology; Apparent paradoxes