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ABSTRACT
A common claim about mathematics education is that it should equip students to use mathematics in the ‘real world’. In this paper, we examine how relationships between mathematics education and the real world are materialised in the curriculum across a sample of eleven jurisdictions. In particular, we address the orientation of the curriculum towards application of mathematics, the ways that real-world contexts are positioned within the curriculum content, the ways in which different groups of students are expected to engage with real-world contexts, and the extent to which high-stakes assessments include real-world problem solving. The analysis reveals variation across jurisdictions and some lack of coherence between official orientations towards use of mathematics in the real world and the ways that this is materialised in the organisation of the content for students.
Acknowledgments
The data for this research were from a study supported by a grant from the Center for International Education Benchmarking (CIEB), National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), Washington, DC.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Cathy Smith
Cathy Smith is a lecturer in education in the Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment at UCL Institute of Education where she is a programme leader for the MA Mathematics Education. Cathy has worked in the mathematics education field since 1993, and her professional and research interests lie in participation in advanced mathematics. Cathy has been the publications officer of the British Society for Research in Learning Mathematics and is the Current Reports editor for the journal Research in Mathematics Education.
Candia Morgan
Candia Morgan is professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment at UCL Institute of Education. Her current work involves mathematics teacher professional development, supervision of research students, and research and consultancy in mathematics education. She has a long-standing research interest in language and mathematics education and in the use of discourse analysis to study mathematics curriculum, assessment and classroom texts.