The old teacher Euclid: and his science in the art of finding one's mathematical voice

This paper offers ideas for teachers to engage with mathematics through the historical ‘journeys’ and relationship with art and cultural and intellectual history. Its premise is that, whilst teachers’ main reason for choosing the career path of a mathematics teacher is usually their enjoyment of the subject, their later insistence on utilitarian view of mathematics leads to disengagement both in their students and their own disillusionment. The paper also treats the question of how teachers who come to the profession from non-mathematical backgrounds find their own ‘mathematical’ voice through series of historical investigations and what impact that may have on their teaching and pupils’ progress.

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