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Turning Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Social

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Shifts in the Field of Mathematics Education

Abstract

I will develop and then reflect on two inter-related claims in this chapter. The first is that the sets of concepts that have emerged through research on mathematics knowledge for teaching (MKT), while relatively recent, have nevertheless proliferated. This is not surprising given that as part of educational knowledge, it is part of a horizontal knowledge structure with a relatively weak grammar (Bernstein, Br J Sociol Educ 20(2):157–173, 1999). The second is that a key ‘new’ position producing and produced by this knowledge development is that of mathematics-teacher-educator-researcher working simultaneously as knowledge producer and recontextualiser in the university. A number of questions, about research and practice emerge from the grammar of MKT and the dual, perhaps ambiguous positioning of its agents. This chapter thus offers a story about mathematical knowledge for teaching framed by Steve Lerman’s contributions to the field, and the possibilities evoked for further work.

We might suggest that the field [of mathematics education research] exhibits a weak grammar, in that we can see a proliferation of new specialised languages, creating new positions within the field.

(Lerman et al. 2002, p. 37)

… [the] privileged position [of mathematics as a field of knowledge] can be seen to place mathematics education in great danger as the research community feels itself free to pursue “internal” issues of teaching and learning mathematics whilst policy makers put pressure on teachers to perform according to their own pedagogical and curricular demands …

(Lerman 2014, p. 13)

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Acknowledgment

This paper forms part of the work of the Wits Maths Connect Project at the University of the Witwatersrand, supported by the FirstRand Foundation Mathematics Education Chairs Initiative of the First Rand Foundation the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation (NRF). Any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the FRF, DST, or NRF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Jill Adler

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  1. Jill Adler
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Correspondence to Jill Adler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nottingham School of Education, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Peter Gates

  2. Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Mt Gravatt, Queensland, Australia

    Robyn Jorgensen (Zevenbergen)

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Adler, J. (2015). Turning Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Social. In: Gates, P., Jorgensen (Zevenbergen), R. (eds) Shifts in the Field of Mathematics Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-179-4_10

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