Summary and Looking Ahead

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

The inclusion of a Topic Study Group (TSG 34) on social and political dimensions of mathematics education was a first under that title in ICME's history. Such recognition weighed on TSG 34 Team members to live-up to the challenge of organizing TSG 34. The Team spent quite some time trying to understand each other's perspectives and to formulate a mission statement that, on one hand, recognized the integrity of the perspectives of its members, and on the other hand was meaningful to the international mathematics education community. The intensive and lengthy deliberations led to a mission statement (reproduced in Section "TSG 34 Mission Statement" below) that was published in the 2nd ICME-13 Announcement. Also TSG 34 decided to make use of ICME-13/Springer offer to publish a topical survey on the social and political dimensions of mathematics education. The Team collectively prepared a survey (Jurdak, Vithal, de Freitas, Gates, & Kollosche, 2016) entitled 'Social and Political Dimensions of Mathematics Education-Current Thinking', a description of which is given in Section "TSG 34 Topical survey on 'Social and Political Dimensions of Mathematics Education-Current Thinking'".

2023

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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.

ICME-13 Topical Surveys, 2016

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ICME-13 Monographs, 2018

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

2010

His main research interests concern fundamental questions about the nature of mathematics and how it relates to teaching, learning and society. He has lectured and published widely on these subjects and his most cited books are The

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 2013

Over the past decade, the mathematics education research community has incorporated more sociocultural perspectives into its ways of understanding and examining teaching and learning. However, researchers who have a long history of addressing anti-racism and social justice issues in mathematics have moved beyond this sociocultural view to espouse sociopolitical concepts and theories, highlighting identity and power at play. This article highlights some promising conceptual tools from critical theory (including critical race theory/Latcrit theory) and post-structuralism and makes an argument for why taking the sociopolitical turn is important for both researchers and practitioners. Potential benefits and challenges of this turn are also discussed.

mathematics education research during the last two decades involving what has been called the "social turn" (Lerman, 2000). Researchers concerned with a wide variety of issues within mathematics education have come increasingly to see the inseparability of culture, context and cognition. Even within research that focuses primarily on cognitive aspects of learning and knowledge, notions of situated learning and distributed knowledge (Lave & Wenger, 1991) are widely used, as well as other theoretical perspectives that emphasise social aspects of learning, drawing in particular on Vygotskian psychology (Vygotsky, 1978). Moving beyond seeing mathematics learning solely as the endeavour of individual students and teachers has been reflected in a broader conceptualization of the subject matter of the field of mathematics education research. Valero (2010) has drawn our attention to the complexity of the networks of communities, interest groups and practices relevant to mathematics education and to the need for research to address this multiplicity of social practices and the connections between them. We are thus aware of the importance of studying the various communities and practices in which students and teachers participate, both within the classroom and beyond. We recognise the influence of policy and institutional structures and constraints at local, national and international levels. We appreciate the impact of the various discourses available inside and outside the school-discourses in the sense written with a capital D by Gee (1996) and defined as incorporating "theories" about what is normal and right and structuring the kinds of identities available to participants. This increasing attention to social aspects of learning has been accompanied by a growth in research foregrounding issues of social justice. Differing levels of achievement in mathematics in particular as well as in education as a whole have been associated with membership of various social groups and the effects of such factors as gender, ethnicity, class and linguistic background on the achievement of students in school mathematics have long been a focus of study. However, our ways of understanding the phenomenon of school failure have developed. In particular, there has been a move from locating the reasons for failure in the characteristics of the individuals concerned or of their communities towards seeking to understand how the

Mathematics is a fundamental part of human knowledge and one of the central planks of the modern technological revolution. But in our enthusiasm to promote its benefits too rarely do we stop to question our intended aims of teaching mathematics and the outcomes of learning mathematics in school. In this paper the standard aims of school mathematics are acknowledged, but so too are the unexpected and unintended outcomes for some or all students. These are primarily the unplanned and unintended values, attitudes and beliefs that students develop during their years of schooling. Many of these are negative. To counter them and more generally to aim higher in school mathematics teaching I propose four additional visionary aims for mathematics that are empowering and broadening. These comprise developing higher level orientations and capabilities including mathematical confidence; mathematical creativity through problem posing and solving; social empowerment through mathematics contributing to critical citizenship; and the broader appreciation of mathematics, its nature and its key ideas.