Mathematics Education Within The Postmodern

This timely and accessible book presents a challenge to accepted wisdoms about both the nature of mathematics and of education. The authors of this groundbreaking volume bring to bear on this intersection a postmodern sensibility that engages with the grand narratives of mathematics education. Thus they provide a key resource for rethinking theory and practice in mathematics education. Each of the chapters develops important insights for mathematics education from mainly French intellectuals of the past: Foucault, Lacan, Lyotard, Deleuze. Each chapter addresses issues relevant to mathematics education, researching and teaching mathematics.

This book comprises the Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-12), which was held at COEX in Seoul, Korea, from July 8th to 15th, 2012. ICME-12 brought together 3500 experts from 92 countries, working to understand all of the intellectual and attitudinal challenges in the subject of mathematics education as a multidisciplinary research and practice. This work aims to serve as a platform for deeper, more sensitive and more collaborative involvement of all major contributors towards educational improvement and in research on the nature of teaching and learning in mathematics education. It introduces the major activities of ICME-12 which have successfully contributed to the sustainable development of mathematics education across the world. The program provides food for thought and inspiration for practice for everyone with an interest in mathematics education and makes an essential reference for teacher educators, curriculum developers and researchers in mathematics education. The work includes the texts of the four plenary lectures and three plenary panels and reports of three survey groups, five National presentations, the abstracts of fifty one Regular lectures, reports of thirty seven Topic Study Groups and seventeen Discussion Groups.

No one disputes how important it is, in today's world, to prepare students to un derstand mathematics as well as to use and communicate mathematics in their future lives. That task is very difficult, however. Refocusing curricula on funda mental concepts, producing new teaching materials, and designing teaching units based on 'mathematicians' common sense' (or on logic) have not resulted in a better understanding of mathematics by more students. The failure of such efforts has raised questions suggesting that what was missing at the outset of these proposals, designs, and productions was a more profound knowledge of the phenomena of learning and teaching mathematics in socially established and culturally, politically, and economically justified institutions - namely, schools. Such knowledge cannot be built by mere juxtaposition of theories in disci plines such as psychology, sociology, and mathematics. Psychological theories focus on the individual learner. Theories of sociology of education look at the general laws of curriculum development, the specifics of pedagogic discourse as opposed to scientific discourse in general, the different possible pedagogic rela tions between the teacher and the taught, and other general problems in the inter face between education and society. Mathematics, aside from its theoretical contents, can be looked at from historical and epistemological points of view, clarifying the genetic development of its concepts, methods, and theories. This view can shed some light on the meaning of mathematical concepts and on the difficulties students have in teaching approaches that disregard the genetic development of these concepts.

Every four years, beginning in 1984, the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA) produces a review of Australasian research in mathematics education. The authors of the chapters in this volume have summarised and critiqued research conducted during the period 2004-2007.

The word "critical" in the title of this collection has three meanings, all of which are relevant. One meaning, as applied to a situation or problem, is "at a point of crisis". A second meaning is "expressing adverse or disapproving comments or judgments". A third is related to the verb "to critique", meaning "to analyze the merits and faults of". The authors contributing to this book pose challenging questions, from multiple perspectives, about the roles of mathematics in society and the implications for education. Traditional reasons for teaching mathematics include: preparing a new generation of mathematics researchers and a cadre of technically competent users of mathematics; training students to think logically; and because mathematics is as much part of cultural heritage as literature or music. These reasons remain valid, though open to critique, but a deeper analysis is required that recognizes the roles of mathematics in framing many aspects of contemporary society, that will connect mathematics education to the lived experiences of students, their communities, and society in general, and that acknowledges the global ethical responsibilities of mathematicians and mathematics educators. The book is organized in four sections (1) Mathematics education: For what and why? (2) Globalization and cultural diversity, (3) Mathematics, education, and society and (4) Social justice in, and through, mathematics education The chapters address fundamental issues such as the relevance of school mathematics in people's lives; creating a sense of agency for the field of mathematics education, and redefining the relationship between mathematics as discipline, mathematics as school subject and mathematics as part of people's lives.

Concerns about quality mathematics education are often posed in terms of the types of mathematics that are worthwhile and valuable for both the student and society in general, and about how to best support students so that they can develop this mathematics. Concerns about equity are about who is excluded from the opportunity to develop quality mathematics within our current practices and systems, and about how to remove social barriers that systematically disadvantage those students. This collection of chapters summarises our learning about the achievement of both equity and quality agendas in mathematics education and to move forward the debate on their importance for the field.

​​This volume gathers together twenty major chapters that tackle a variety of issues associated with equity in mathematics education along the dimensions of gender, culture, curriculum diversity, and matters of a biological nature. The pursuit of equity in mathematics education is an important concern in the history of the present. Since there is no doubt about the significant role of mathematics in almost every aspect of life, it means that all individuals regardless of sex, in any age range, and in whatever context need to be provided with an opportunity to become mathematically able. The publication of this Springer volume on equity in mathematics education is situated at a time when there is strong and sustained research evidence indicating the persistence of an equity gap in mathematics, which has now enabled the mathematics education community to engage in a discourse of access for all. The research studies that are reported and discussed in the volume have been drawn from an international group of distinguished scholars whose impressive, forward-looking, and thought-provoking perspectives on relevant issues incite, broaden, and expand complicated conversations on how we might effectively achieve equity in mathematics education at the local, institutional, and systemic levels. Further, the up-to-date research knowledge in the field that is reflected in this volume provides conceptual and practical outlines for mechanisms of change, including models, examples, and usable theories that can inform the development of powerful equitable practices and the mobilization of meaningful equity interventions in different contexts of mathematics education.​