Plenary 2
Mathematics education as a network of social practices / Paola Valero, Aalborg University, Denmark
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Reactor: Margarida Alexandra da Piedade Silva Cesar (Lisbon University)
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SUMMARY
Based on an analysis of mathematics education research as an academic field and on current social, political and economic transformations in many European countries, I would argue for the need to rethink and enlarge definitions and views of mathematics education as a scientific field of study in order to provide better understandings and alternatives for practice in the teaching and learning of mathematics today. I will explore the notion of the “network of mathematics education practices” as a complex, multi-layered space of social practice where the meanings of the teaching and learning of mathematics are constituted. I will illustrate the potentiality of this notion to envision possible research paths in the field. I will illustrate these with the research that my colleagues and I have been carrying on multicultural classrooms in Denmark; as well as will offer examples of other research studies in Europe and other parts of the world where I see that the discipline is gaining newer insights that could allow attending to the social changes and challenges of the 21st century.
