Mathematics education in the spotlight: Its purpose and some implications

Abstract

This article proposes a reframing of the purposes of mathematics education for the twenty-first century that combines apparently divergent philosophical approaches, arguing that the consequent empowerment should as a matter of individual equity be available to all young people (as well as of benefit to wider society). It suggests that the global mathematics attainment 'spotlight', and the English policy context in particular, offer both opportunities and constraints for the development of such a high-quality mathematics education. The article also discusses the challenging implications for the curriculum, and for the nature of teacher expertise, particularly subject-specific expertise, that is needed.

Epistemic Quality in the Intended Mathematics Curriculum and Implications for Policy

“…I argue in Golding (2018), that school mathematics per se takes place in a constrained context, with novice mathematicians, so that the appropriate epistemic approach should be closely, and increasingly, related to that of the parent discipline -but is necessarily different from it. Within applications of school mathematics there are other considerations that serve perhaps to further constrain the alignment of an epistemic approach in order to accommodate the epistemic values of the field of application -a variety of 'rhetorical norms' (Kitcher 1991).…”

The Attitude of Primary School Teachers towards STEM Education

“…Individuals who fulfill potential STEM career requirements also need to be raised in significant numbers. However, studies from Australia suggest that the world is facing a problem of shortage of experts in the field of STEM, and the number of high school students who choose STEM disciplines is declining [13]. Not all STEM graduates choose STEM jobs, with only 57% of students working in STEM fields and 46% of STEM graduates leaving STEM.…”

In China, What We Need is More Than Mathematics: A Literature Review of Numeracy

“…Even in a global setting, China's view on the objective of mathematics education keeps up with the current of time and basically corresponds to the popular thought that mathematics acquisition is for the purposes of practical application (Brez & Allen, 2016;Giardini, 2016;Gravemeijer et al, 2017;Österman & Brå ting, 2019;Siller, 2011;Sparrow, 2008;Sullivan, 2011;Sutton & Krueger, 2002;Wong et al, 2012). However, the real teaching practices in classroom seem to be off the trail of the principal purpose of mathematics education and actually do not overstep the boundary of the so-called "powerful knowledge" that simply stresses the deep conceptual understanding of mathematics (Golding, 2018). Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that certain features of China's view on mathematics education overlap with the ones of numeracy, including meaningful application in contexts and use of tools.…”