Guest Lecture: Why isn't mathematics attractive any more?

Time and place: Friday 14 November – 12:15 – Aud F, HiA Grimstad

Summary:

Concerns about pupils’ access to mathematics have recently heightened due to the many issues surrounding the mathematics classroom and the mathematics student. In this presentation we begin by examining the mathematics, that is its different meanings and interpretations, and what it is that is fundamentally important about the knowing and learning of mathematics for students and their teachers. We then highlight selected important issues concerning its teaching and learning, by appropriately discussing the contexts within which these issues arise and may be resolved. The issues include curriculum content, issues of social justice and equity, and the value of culture in the teaching (and learning) of mathematics. In principle, here we ask whether there is mathematics for all. Different conceptualisations of this notion are explicated and conditions of practice put forward that may turn the intentions into reality.

About the Speaker:

Dr Birgit Pepin is Director of Doctoral Studies at Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University . She has a strong and versatile background within cross-national comparative research, in particular in the context of secondary mathematics education and with respect to ‘culture.’ Dr Pepin has extensive and versatile international experience, including initiating, developing and preparing new research proposals (EU and national grants), convening SIGs (special interest groups) within conferences, and member of the editorial board of British Education Research Journal. Of particular relevance for this lecture is Dr Pepin’s research in mathematics education, pedagogy and ‘culture’ and working with and within groups of teachers and teacher educators in three countries.