17-19 May 2024 – Alexandroupolis, Greece
Conference Theme and Thematic Axes
The storm of challenges that today’s societies are constantly confronted with, such as those related to climate change, refugees and migration, social justice and the dominance of technology in all human activity, inevitably affect fundamental values such as freedom, democracy and human rights. It is now a priority to move towards societies that offer solutions to global challenges with respect to fundamental values and, consequently, to educate future citizens in ways that equip them with social, political and intercultural knowledge, skills and competences that promote ‘active citizenship’.
Mathematics education cannot be but a crucial component of such a transition. The importance of mathematics for modern life has exploded in the recent decades, as the mathematisation of our society in visible (for example, in technology) or invisible (in almost every kind of ‘tool’) ways is evident in all aspects of human activity. On the other hand, the study of mathematics is ultimately … the study of humanity itself (Devlin, 1998). Yet, despite their internationally recognized value, to date, the mathematics education offered in classrooms continues to prevent the majority of students from building a fruitful relationship with mathematics.
The socio-cultural and, subsequently, the socio-political turn in the field of mathematics education since the 1990s has sought the non-cognitive parameters of failure in mathematics. The long-term goal of this search was (and is) to humanize and democratize the practice of teaching mathematics so that all students, not just some, benefit. According to Gutstein (2006) this means supporting all students to be able to ‘read and write the world with mathematics’. That is, to value mathematical knowledge, to be academically successful on the one hand and to be able to use mathematics to change the world on the other. In such a perspective, mathematics education is called upon to prepare students to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a conscious yet critical way. That is, to support them in ‘developing consciousness’ (Freire, 1992). This is a collaborative process that empowers the learner to be able to consider diverse perspectives, negotiate with others, make careful decisions and engage in solving complex social problems in a critical way.
But what kind of school environment can serve the perspective of mathematical education described above? Phillip and Rubel (2019) propose the mathematics classroom as a ‘democracy laboratory’ where students experiment with ideas, share information, reflect critically and self-correct, paying particular attention to the internal and external forms of power exercised and shaping group action. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in the USA already at the beginning of this century has clearly articulated the goals for a mathematics education that contributes to the education of democratic future citizens: mathematics for life, mathematics as part of cultural heritage, mathematics as one of man’s greatest intellectual and cultural achievements, mathematics in the workplace, and mathematics for the scientific and technological/ digital society.
Based on the reflection developed above, the theme of the 10th Panhellenic Conference of Researchers in Mathematics Teaching is formulated as follows:
Mathematics Education and Citizenship: visible and invisible aspects/ components of a complex relationship
The theme of the conference offers the possibility and the opportunity to develop research and teaching practices that focus on the socio-cultural and socio-political agenda of mathematics education in Greece and Cyprus, a research area that has been rapidly developing internationally in recent years. This is a topic that has so far been of limited interest to ENEDIM conferences.
The thematic axes proposed for the conference are as follows:
Thematic Axis 1: Mathematics education: social, cultural and political parameters
This axis includes studies that explore ways in which social, cultural and political parameters shape the mathematical meaning constructed by students and teaching practices employed by the teachers inside and outside the classroom. It concerns issues of equal opportunities in accessing mathematical knowledge, diversity, inclusion, power distribution, identity, subjectivity, critical mathematical education, citizenship, etc.
Thematic Axis 2: Cognitive aspects of learning and teaching mathematics
A considerable part of the research activity in the field of mathematics education is, still today, focused on issues concerning thinking, understanding and reasoning that develop in the context of learning and teaching mathematics. In particular, relevant research is concerned with the role of representations, memory, intuition, mindset, visualization, etc. in the development of mathematical thinking. At the same time, a limited but significant research concentrates on issues related to the specific nature of mathematical knowledge and the implications of this specificity for the processes of learning and teaching mathematics.
Thematic Axis 3: Assessment of the processes of learning and teaching mathematics
Making sense of the fundamental concepts in the field of assessment and the possibilities of their use in the educational practice are critical components of mathematics education. This axis includes studies that focus on assessment as a social activity, a critique of the dominant paradigm of assessment and an alternative perspective that takes into account the social nature of mathematical behavior, theories of discourse and communication, power relations, and critical ‘readings’ of the ‘assessment of’ and the ‘assessment for’ processes.
Thematic Axis 4: Digital technologies and mathematics education for the 21st century
Severe technological developments, which are significantly influencing changes in modern societies at all levels, often enforce rather than mitigate social inequalities. Mathematics education, seen as a critical component of the societies’ progression, can only but be influenced by the achievements of digital technology. This axis includes studies that focus on the ways in which digital technologies ‘transform’ mathematics educational practice, creating new opportunities and possibly new ‘exclusions’ in the route to becoming successful in mathematics.
Thematic Axis 5: Mathematics curricula: modern approaches
Curricula define what it is desirable for future citizens to know and be able to achieve in mathematics. Consequently, a Curriculum reflects political aspirations about who the desired citizen is, what mathematical knowledge he or she needs to have access to and what pedagogical practices can contribute to his or her ‘becoming’. The papers under this axis focus on issues of content and organisation linked to epistemological, social, cultural and political aspects of the development, implementation and assessment of mathematics curricula at all levels of education.
Thematic Axis 6: Professional development and mathematics education: teaching mathematics for future active citizenship
The increasing complexity of everyday life, the effective management of which requires mathematically literate citizens, makes it necessary to educate and continuously support teachers to be able to respond dynamically to the constant challenges they face in their efforts to ensure equal opportunities to ‘mathematical literacy’ for all students. This axis hosts studies that explore professional development issues at all levels of education that serve the ‘vision’ of a democratic mathematical education.
Thematic Axis 7: 1. Empirical and theoretical studies in the field of Mathematics Education that are not part of the thematic axes 1-6