Conclusion: Revisiting Mathematics Education for a Global Context

Brock Education Journal, 2017

Schools, as social systems, may knowingly or unintentionally perpetuate inequities through unchallenged oppressive systems. This paper focuses on mathematics as a subject area in school practices in which inequities seem to be considered normal. Issues of racism and racialization in the discipline of mathematics are predominantly lived through the practice of streaming where students are enrolled in courses of different levels of difficulty. Such practice denies marginalized groups of students the full benefit of rich learning experiences. These issues should be of concern for activists, advocates, and allies as well as individuals and groups who are systematically and directly affected. The purpose of this paper is to make visible issues of racism and racialization in school mathematics to a range of stakeholders that include: school administrators, teachers, students, parents, education advocates, academics, educational researchers, and politicians. The ultimate goal is that the knowledge gained through this call to action will contribute toward eliminating social injustice in all school systems, particularly as it relates to skin colour, country of origin, culture, language, customs, and religion.

Springer eBooks, 2017

All over the world, mathematics education takes place in multilingual and multicultural environments, including situations affected by historical diversity, colonialism, migration and globalisation. Research on the issues arising in such environments is growing and is of wide relevance. The aim of TSG32 at ICME-13 was to examine issues that arise in conducting research on mathematics education in such environments. The TSG saw 9 presentations in the main TSG sessions and 13 oral communications. Each main session concluded with a period of discussion of cross-cutting themes. A joint session was also organised with TSG31 (Language and communication in mathematics education). Three themes mentioned in the original TSG description were addressed during the main sessions: the interaction between policy, practice and research; the role of theory in understanding mathematics education in multilingual and multicultural environments; and cross-disciplinary perspectives in researching mathematics education in multilingual and multicultural environments. We organise our summary of the presentations in the main sessions of TSG32 around these themes (the presentations were not, however, presented in this sequence during the TSG ses-Co-chairs: Richard Barwell, Anjum Halai.

Nomad Nordic Studies in Mathematics Education, 2008

Educational Studies in Mathematics, 2018

The intent of the book Sociopolitical Dimensions of Mathematics Education: From the Margin to the Mainstream is to capture, promote, critique, and reflect on the mainstreaming of the sociopolitical dimensions in mathematics education. The editors, Murad Jurdak and Renuka Vithal, state: Bmathematics for all is an illusion that allows the status quo of its systemic failure to remain^(p. 11). From this lens, I came to the title of my book review. It is a juxtaposition between fantasy and reality in the quest for mathematics for all. The book's analysis of the sociopolitical dimensions in mathematics education highlights the challenges and the action necessary to make mathematics for all a reality. First, a deeper understanding of the term mathematics for all in its simplistic aspects of meaning keeps the possibility of attainment at a distance and possible only in an ideal society. Second, the complexity of contemporary society calls for mathematics educators to take action beyond what mathematics is to be learned. For example, mathematics educators could see themselves with power to inform and impact school mathematics education at all levels through social media with authentic suggestions based on research. Therefore, the intricacies of sociopolitical dimensions in mathematics education force us to zoom in and zoom out repeatedly on the research and the decisions that are made for each learner, or groups of learners. The International Conference on Mathematics Education (ICME) meets every four years and provides an update on the current condition of mathematics education. In 2016 (ICME-13), the Topic Study Group (TSG 34), Social and Political Dimension of Mathematics Education was inaugurated. Although I attended and presented at ICME-13, I was not familiar with TSG 34. However, I was familiar with the content of Deborah Ball's plenary session: Uncovering the Special Mathematical Work of Teaching. She along with Bill Barton, and Günter Ziegler, spoke directly about aspects of the sociopolitical in mathematics education.

Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe - HAL - Université Paris Descartes, 2019

2015

Thematic working group 10 is interested in discussing diversity and mathematics education within the realms of the societal, the cultural, and the political. The working group was established at CERME7 in Rzeszow, Poland, in 2011 (Valero, Crafter, Gellert, & Gorgorio, 2011; see also Pais, Crafter, Straehler-Pohl, & Mesquita, 2013), but was an extension of the language diversity group which had been part of CERME since the first conference. In the work of the group, mathematics education is assumed to refer to more than the encounter between an individual and a mathematical object and to wider contexts than exclusively classroom settings.

This essay reviews the principles motivating contemporary critical mathematics discourses. Drawing from varied critical discourses including ethnomathematics, critical theory, post-structural theory, and situated and ecological cognition, the essay examines the pragmatics of critiques to the privileged role of school mathematics in the era of globalization. Critiques of modern school curricula argue that globalization practices linking education to technological and economic development are increasing, and the curriculum is being redefined through discourses of privatization, national standards, and global competitiveness. Globalization has reinforced the utilitarian approach to school mathematics and the Western bias in the prevailing mathematics curricula, as well as helped to globalize pervasive mathematical ideologies. In most instances, a newfound status that mathematics is enjoying in this era of globalization is not well deserved, as school mathematics can no longer be considered culturally, socially, politically, nor economically neutral. In particular, school mathematics is increasingly critiqued as a cultural homogenizing force, a critical filter for status, a perpetuator of mistaken illusions of certainty, and an instrument of power. With such concerns it is becoming more evident that mathematics learning and education have implications for building just and democratic societies. As an African female scholar who is now living in Canada, I reflect on what the critical stance might mean for contexts with which I am SCHOOL MATHEMATICS IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION 2 familiar. I discuss the challenges of school mathematics with a view to improving curriculum and pedagogy so as to raise the awareness of teachers and learners to the questionable assumptions from which mathematics derives its prestige. The mathematics curriculum is central to cultivating values as well as fostering the conscientization of learners.

Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 2013

CITATION: Stinson, D. W. (2013). On being a hardliner on issues of race and culture in mathematics education research [Editorial]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 6(2), 1–6.

2007

D'Ambrósio, U. (1997). Ethnomatemathics and its place in the history and pedagogy of mathematics. In A.B. Powell, & M. Frankenstein (Eds.), Ethnomathematics. Challenging eurocentrism in mathematics education (pp. 13-24). Albany: State University of New York Press. Ferreira, M. (2003). Alunos ciganos e a sua relação com a escola e a matemática escolar. Porto: Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto. [Master dissertation, non-published document]

2000