Strategic Device, resistance and power relations: an essay on the identity of the Mathematical Education Center (CEM in the Brazilian abbreviation) and its role in the Brazilian Mathematical Education

This paper presents some results of the investigation on the Mathematical Education Centre (CEM), a group of mathematics teachers’ educators in S o Paulo, Brazil, acting mainly between 1984 and 1997. The essay, marked by an effort to constitute the identity of the CEM based on Foucault, assumes that the identity constitution process is not about what CEM is or was, but mainly about a set ofpossibilities of apprehending it from its historically contextualized strategies and initiatives. In this Foucauldian reading, which brings about concepts such as “strategic device”, “resistance” and “power relations”, the CEM constitution appears while it creates conditions for the constitution of Brazilian modern mathematical education.