From Mathematics and Education, to Mathematics Education

Science & Education, 2014

In this work I look at mathematics education from a Derridean perspective. The foundation stone for my analysis is the debate between mathematicians and mathematics educators. In the first part I delineate some theoretical elements, which I claim limit mathematics educators" critiques of mathematicians. The principal one is the notion of mathematics education as a research domain fashioned by empiricism and science. However, this constraint also precludes us from introducing Derrida as a theoretical reference. From this standpoint, the thesis begins to articulate a notion of research compatible with Derrida"s notion of writing and, simultaneously, allows us to incorporate Derrida as such a theoretical reference. Subsequently, I progress towards a critique which would overcome the limits already suggested in the first part of the thesis. I suggest that Derrida provides us with theoretical elements, which allow us to take mathematics educators" critiques of mathematicians further than currently projected. To further develop my analysis, and at this point, I bring to the forefront the following question: "What is the meaning of mathematics in mathematics education?" I am, however, not interested in just an abstract discussion of this question. Rather, I attempt to illustrate how this question appears to be essentially and constantly present in the very history and literature of mathematics education. Revisiting Derrida, I lay bare the elements of the debate relating to the meaning of the word "mathematics". I confront that question using Derrida"s famous passage that "there is nothing beyond the text". In my final chapter and before my conclusion I sketch the history of mathematics education in the Twentieth Century and I explore the idea of how the phenomenon of the internationalization of the English language is closely linked to the inauguration of the term "mathematics education". A significant moment in this history is when the "Commission Internationale de l"Enseignement Mathématique" transforms into the "International Commission on Mathematical Instruction". I conclude my thesis by arguing that a critique of mathematicians" notions of mathematics may endanger the very foundation and status of mathematics education as a research entity in its own right.

Word of guest editor The history of mathematics and its uses of in mathematics education have been identified and described many times in the last century or so. More recently, in the past decade, they have been classified and identified both in terms of the uses in the classroom, and the uses of the history of mathematics in mathematics teacher education and training. Th e various international bodies now give attention to the history of mathematics in and of education: 1. ICME (International Congress of Mathematics Education) has a regular topic study groups – one on the history of mathematics in education and one on the history of mathematics of education 2. HPM (History and Pedagogy of Mathematics) is a world-wide association of academics who hold biannual meetings; once every four years meetings are held as satellite meetings to ICME and in between those (two years into the period) it holds European Summer University. Th e HPM is an associate of the International Mathematics Un...

International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, 2021

The purpose of this study is to establish the evolution and expose the trends of research in mathematics education between 1980 and 2019. The bibliometric analysis of the articles in Web of Science database indicated four-clustered structure. The first cluster covers the items related to the theoretical framework of mathematics education whereas the second cluster has the terms defining the methods for effective mathematics instruction. The third cluster includes the concepts interrelated to mathematics education while the fourth cluster encloses the studies about international mathematics assessments. The earlier studies look mathematics education mostly in students’ perspective and investigates generalization, restructuring, interiorization and representation. Between 1995 and 2010, curriculum and teacher-related factors were dominant in mathematics education studies. After 2010, the articles investigated specific topics and carried the traces from all stakeholders in mathematics ...

The history of mathematics and its uses of in mathematics education have been identified and described many times in the last century or so. More recently, in the past decade, they have been classified and identified both in terms of the uses in the classroom, and the uses of the history of mathematics in mathematics teacher education and training. The various international bodies now give attention to the history of mathematics in and of education: 1. ICME (International Congress of Mathematics Education) has a regular topic study groups – one on the history of mathematics in education and one on the history of mathematics of education 2. HPM (History and Pedagogy of Mathematics) is a world-wide association of academics who hold biannual meetings; once every four years meetings are held as satellite meetings to ICME and in between those (two years into the period) it holds European Summer University. The HPM is an associate of the International Mathematics Union and contributes to ...

2000

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, 2017

2004

Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education, 2017

The Topic Study Group on the history of the teaching and learning of mathematics was formed in 2004 at ICME-10. Its work reflects the growing interest in the history of mathematics education. At ICME-13 in Hamburg, this TSG had more participants than in previous years, but the procedure at the main meetings followed established tradition-short reports were heard, after each of which the speaker could answer some questions. Before turning to a discussion (necessarily very brief) of the contents of the reports, a few words must be said about the beneficial innovations that set apart the 2016 conference. The first of them was the publication of a booklet, History of mathematics teaching and learning. Achievements, Problems, Prospects (Springer, 2016), prepared by Alexander Karp and Fulvia Furinghetti in discussion with the other members of the team. Hopefully, this booklet offers researchers (first and foremost, beginning researchers) useful bibliographic information, and also lists a number of areas in which scholarly work is being conducted in different countries. Another innovation was the introduction of so-called "Oral Communications," that is, additional meetings at which more presentations were heard. Along with poster presentations, they gave participants an opportunity to form a better understanding of what is being studied by historians of different countries' mathematics education. Since these presentations cannot be discussed in detail here, we restrict ourselves to listing the authors of the studies that were presented (names of presenters in

Handbook of International Research in Mathematics Education, 2014