Mathematics Education Researchers (MER) community
Mathematics education continues to receive a high level of political and media attention. Alongside literacy, foundational mathematical skills are positioned as non-negotiable ‘basics’, meaning that testing and sorting of students occurs earlier in mathematics than most other learning areas. Mathematics/pāngarau is also part of the ‘STEM’ group of subjects which is often positioned as critical to national economic competitiveness and innovation. Competing perspectives of mathematics represent the discipline as either objective and culture-free, or as a culturally located human creation. These factors and many others mean that curriculum and policy pertaining to mathematics are in a constant state of flux, with students and teachers subjected to a very demanding pace of change.
At the time of this call, Aotearoa New Zealand is in the midst of one of the most significant and rapid changes in mathematics education curriculum and policy in the history of its education system. For the first time in a hundred years, our primary schools and kura have a statutory obligation to test children’s mathematics, twice a year, in Years 3-8. Primary children must learn mathematics for an average of at least one hour per day. A new mathematics curriculum has been rapidly developed, underpinned by a narrative of the ‘science of learning’ and with an increased emphasis on explicit teaching. All of these changes are taking place in a context of increasing accountability.
Against this backdrop, it is timely to gather together current research, relevant to these times of curriculum and policy change, from Aotearoa New Zealand and from our international colleagues who face similar challenges and opportunities.