Find more about
Ole Skovsmose
Biography
I was born in 1944 in Hjørring, a small city in the North of Denmark. There was no academic tradition in my family. One of my grandfathers was carpenter, the other was a shoemaker.
ACADEMIC LIFE
The students’ movement associated to 1968, the year I started at Copenhagen University, brought about many new ideas in education. I was inspired by this movement.
The Artist
One can name many emotions: fear, love, longing. But there are even more feelings without names. My paintings are about both kinds of feelings. I am trying also to paint what one cannot say in words.
Find more about
Ole Skovsmose
Biography
I was born in 1944 in Hjørring, a smaller city in the North of Denmark. There was no academic tradition in my family. One of my grandfathers was carpenter, the other was a shoemaker.
ACADEMIC LIFE
The students’ movement associated to 1968, the year I started at Copenhagen University, brought about many new ideas in education. I was inspired by this movement.
The Artist
One can name many emotions: fear, love, longing. But there are even more feelings without names. My paintings are about both kinds of feelings. I am trying also to paint what one cannot say in words.
SOME OF
My Work
Critical Mathematic Education
2023
Towards a Philosophy of Critical Mathematics Education
1994
Saudade
“Being Together”
find more
Art Gallery
Visit my online gallery by clicking the button below and see some of my paintings.
See also my Instagram page @oleskovsmose_art
Ole Skovsmose
Biography
I was born in 1944 in Hjørring, a small city in the North of Denmark. There was no academic tradition in my family. One of my grandfathers was carpenter, the other was a shoemaker. As child I ran around in clogs that he had made. My father was a tailor, employed at a workshop. My mother did the housework.
Already as very young my ambition was to become a teacher. I liked to work with children, and I was dedicated being a handball coach for young people my age. After I left school, I worked a couple of years before I got the age for entering a teacher training college. There was such a college in the city where I lived. In Denmark, teacher education is not a university study, and at the college we studied all kinds of topics: Danish, religion, geography, history, biology, mathematics, everything you need in order to teach children between 6 and 16 years. A teacher education program takes 4 years.
At the college, I got academic interests and after finishing my teacher training, I wanted to enter a university. At Copenhagen University I studied mathematics and philosophy. During my university studies I was teaching mathematics at a teacher training college. This job combined with my studies in philosophy and mathematics formed my initial aspirations for elaborating a critical mathematics education.
In 1975 I applied for a PhD scholarship at the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies (Danmarks Lærerhøjskole). After a second try I got accepted in 1977. My aim was to develop critical mathematics education as a possible practice in a Danish school context. In 1982 I got my PhD degree, being the first PhD in mathematics education in Denmark.
I have two children, Li and Nicolai, both living in Denmark. I also have one grandchild, Lucca Victoria, daughter of Li and Kenneth. My sister Inger and her husband Benny lives in Hjørring, the city where we were born. My first wife, Rita, died of cancer in 1986.
I came to work at Aalborg University, where my research concentrated on critical mathematics education and on the philosophy of mathematics. In 1994 I obtained a Dr. Scient.-degree based on my book Towards a Philosophy of Critical Mathematics Education.
Parallel to my academic work, I have been working as artist. I have shown my paintings in galleries and museums in Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, The Netherlands, and USA. I have participated in the Ava Art Festival, Osaka 2017; Art Expo, New York, 2016; Biennial of European and Latin American Contemporary Art, Rio de Janeiro, 2015 and Porto, 2012; “Creative Moments”, Saphira and Ventura Gallery, New York, 2016; and “Art Shopping”, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, 2014.
I am member of the Association Internationale des Arts Plastiques and of Billedkunstnernes Forbund, Denmark. In the book Saudade, one can read about the history of some of my paintings.
I am married to Miriam from Brazil. She is my love. We have lived through wonderful moments, and also through many difficulties due to my present health problems. However, also difficult periods include beautiful moments.
Recognition
Hans Freudenthal Award
Hans Freudenthal Award 2024
In 2024 I received the Hans Freudenthal Award, named after the eighth president of ICMI. This award “recognises a major cumulative program of mathematics education research”. I am very happy for this recognition.
Recognition
Hans Freudenthal Award
Hans Freudenthal Award 2024
The Hans Freudenthal Award is awarded in 2024 to Professor Ole Skovsmose, Professor Emeritus of Aalborg University, Denmark, for his outstanding contributions to the very foundations of mathematics education through his career-long explorations of Critical Mathematics Education.
