Agency and assemblage in pattern generalisation: a materialist approach to learning

In this paper, we draw on the contemporary perspective of inclusive materialism offered by de Freitas and Sinclair to contribute to current discussions on the role of the body in the learning of mathematics. Using the notions of distributed agency and assemblage, we illustrate the way in which three students engage with a patterning task. We discuss this as an example to show how the mathematics activity involves, besides the students’ bodies, other materialities that populate the classroom, and how all the human and non-human bodies form a moving assemblage that constantly reconfigures and reorients learning. The inclusive materialism helps us talk about learning as a dynamic assemblage rather than in terms of individual achievements and directs attention to the material learning environment.