Institutional Contexts for Research in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Mathematics has maintained an enduring image as a field of knowledge lending its resources to many intellectual pursuits and utilitarian enterprises. School mathematics, however, has increasingly learned to respond to a commonly conceived purpose of supplying the world's workforce with the resources needed to support economic wellbeing. The emergent regulation in support of this response has in some instances tempered more humanistic or idealistic conceptions of why we want to study mathematics. What had been introduced to measure school mathematics now defines and polices its boundaries. It has also privileged Western concerns in setting internationalized agenda. Mathematics, mathematics education and mathematics education research, this chapter suggests, are each conceptualized according to their location, reflecting and shaping each other, yet with each being governed by slightly different priorities. It is argued that schooling is increasingly shaped and judged by its perceived capacity to deliver success in terms of international competitiveness linked to economic agenda. This results in school mathematics being shaped to meet assessment requirements. The chapter shows how research increasingly finds its terms of reference set according to measuring delivery in these terms. It also shows how researchers become complicit in promoting particular conceptions of teaching and in constructing the field as an ideological battleground. Such complicity, it is suggested, combined with the relative insularity of the field, prevents us from occupying other worlds that might define us and serve us in different ways. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the prospects of research in mathematics education and the extent to which this activity is enabled or restricted by existing institutional contexts in reshaping its ambitions to engage with the diversity of future needs.

Subjectivity and cultural adjustment in mathematics education: a response to Wolff-Michael Roth

“…If I was to consult my son's last exam paper in this area, I would find a much depleted conception of geometry propping up a test designed to be consistent in style with wider Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study/PISA assessment where geometrical concepts are partitioned in very specific ways into questions of a particular form. Quite apart from the formal rules of geometry, that which counts as school mathematics is constantly shifting as a result of the pedagogical/curricula layers being permanently on the move in response to ever-shifting administrative demands (Brown & Clarke, 2012). More positively, there will be other wholly contemporary depictions of geometry, such as those developed within recent technologies, opening whole new worlds of spatial awareness.…”

Pemilihan Mahasiswa Unggulan: Integrasi Metode Profile Matching dalam Sistem Pendukung Keputusan

“…Dalam mendukung argumen penelitian, sitasi telah disertakan pada uraian yang relevan untuk memberikan landasan teoritis dan mendukung temuan penelitian. Sitasi ini mencakup penelitian terkini oleh Johnson et al (2022), Smith andBrown (2021), serta penelitian lokal oleh Universitas XYZ (2020).…”

Language and Cultural Issues in the Teaching and Learning of WNA

“…The implementation of international achievement tests such as TIMSS in 1995 and OECD's PISA in 2000 prompted widespread curriculum reform, which often focused extensively on WNA. Multiple stakeholders, including educators, school personnel, business leaders and parents, often expressed conflicting arithmetic goals and pedagogical expectations (Brown and Clarke 2013). These conflicts, called the 'Math Wars', occurred in North America (e.g.…”