The conference program

Keynote and focus speakers

Mathematics education for social justice: defining a new civil right
Ruth Cossey
Mills College, Oakland, California USA

Conservative forces dominate the rhetoric of educational reform in the United States. The hopeful progressive visions of the last decade have been largely eroded through contortion and language appropriation.
For example, activist Marion Wright Edelmann, in defense of poor children, proclaimed “Leave No Child Behind.” She called for an end to the offer of only marginal life chances to the most vulnerable while spending huge sums to provide excellent opportunities for the most affluent. The Bush administration has now appropriated the language but not the spirit of Edelman’s social, economic, and educational vision. In the guise of equity, high standards and excellence, the policy of “No Child Left Behind” attacks the teaching profession and if left unchecked could dismantle public education. While this lofty sounding but educationally unsound policy is specific to the United States, results of it and reactions to it provide interesting lessons for global mathematics education communities.

As is often the case, many solutions lie in setting the terms of the debate. There is a significant and growing movement to view mathematical literacy as a civil right. Access to strong quantitative reasoning skills in a manner congruent with cultural patterns including language is a growing demand that counters increased accountability and standardization of mediocrity.


Voices that challenge business as usual
Mary Jane Schmitt
TERC, Cambridge, Massachusetts USA

Instructional practice in basic mathematics education for adults in the United States is typically accompanied by computationally-driven workbooks and standardized tests. Arithmetic drives instruction, and context and applications (in the form of "word problems") serve as opportunities to practice just-learned computational routines. Moreover, individualized, isolating environments are the norm. While the adult basic education system in which these educational practices are embedded intends to provide a second chance to millions of adult school returners, the results have been at best second rate.

How does the Adult Basic Education community begin to pry instruction from the grip of this tradition? And what types of instructional practices and resources might prove to be productive alternatives?

Curriculum developers and practitioners can gain by listening to the wisdom of many voices:

We will trace some of the ways in which the Extending Mathematical Power (EMPower) Project attempts to use insights from these various groups to shape a new curriculum that disputes narrow conceptions of the “basics” and encourages communities of learners. We will also share some of the challenges and tensions inherent in stepping away from business as usual.


Research into research on adults in Bridging Mathematics: the past, the present and the future
Janet Taylor and Linda Galligan
Preparatory and Academic Support, University of Southern Queensland

Bridging Mathematics has been an informal network of researchers and practitioners from Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa and the Pacific since the late 1980’s. The political and educational climate that saw the rise of the network in those early years is not the climate that exists today. However, although the change in climate has affected both the research and teaching practice of its members, fundamental issues related to adults learning mathematics in all its forms are still being discussed. This session will trace the history of research into and about adults in bridging mathematics highlighting the major achievements along the way. The recurring questions about ‘What do we teach?’, ‘How do we teach it?’, ‘Who will teach it?’ and ‘What do we do about the changing technologies?’ will be revisited, leading up to the final question – ‘Is bridging mathematics still necessary?


Current events and Interests: powerful tools for mathematics learning
Doug Clarke
Education, Australian Catholic University (Victoria)

Mathematics teaching has been criticized in many countries for its lack of relevance to the learners’ needs and interests. We have all been asked, "what are we doing this for?" "When are we ever going to use this stuff?" Current events and the interests and day-to-day experiences of the learner provide opportunities to use mathematics to explore and answer questions of common or individual interest and show the way in which mathematics can help us to make sense of the world. In this presentation, I will make use of a wide range of examples of how current events and students’ interests can make the mathematics classroom come alive. We will explore contexts as diverse as the "average" man, the Guinness Book of Records, gambling, why banning smoking on airplanes saves fuel, Olympic performances, body size, and the secret to happiness. And we’ll have some fun too!


Keynote and focus panels

Australasian perspectives: where from? and where to now?
Beth Marr, Barbara Miller-Reilly, Dave Tout and Betty Johnston


Borders and border crossings: Indigenous adults and mathematics
Kura (Pep) Raureti, Michael Michie, Caty Morris and Eunice Bartlett


If we have a commitment to social justice, what is it in adult maths / numeracy education that we think is worth fighting for?
Keiko Yasukawa, Dave Baker, Ruth Cossey and international panel