Peter Gates

Is Mathematics for All

Mathematics for All began as a programme in the early 1980s when concerns about pupils’ access to mathematics education heightened due to the many issues surrounding the mathematics classroom and the mathematics student. The following chapter highlights these important issues by appropriately discussing the contexts within which these issues arise and may be resolved. The issues include curriculum content and assessment practices, equity among subgroups classified by gender, race, and socioeconomic status, the use of mathematics as a selection device, democracy in the mathematics classroom, and the value of culture in the teaching of mathematics. The chapter, likewise, echoes the voices of marginalized groups in the mathematics classroom that are products of undemocratic pedagogical practices, societal perceptions, and cultural realities. Prerequisites for a successful Mathematics for All programme are put forward and directions for further research are offered.

Persistence, how do they do it? A case study of Access to Higher Education learners on a UK Diploma/BSc Nursing programme

In 2006, the United Kingdom (U.K.) Department of Health (DoH) produced guidelines, requiring institutions to address the attrition rates for student nurses and midwives. This issue is not only a concern in the U.K. but has gained prominence in other Schools of Nursing including the U.S.A., Australia, and developing countries. Many Schools of Nursing have witnessed a change in their student population with a growing prominence of mature entrants (those over 21). Studies that focus on learner persistence, in particular mature students are relatively rare and very scarce on entrants with an Access to Higher Education (HE) qualification. This study, using focus group interviews, involved Access to HE learners who successfully progressed to a Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE)/Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Nursing at one U.K. University. The study findings indicated that Access to HE learners are able to develop a range of coping strategies in relation to academic demands and caring responsibilities, which are drawn upon in their DipHE/BSc programme. The findings have relevance for all Schools of Nursing as we face new and difficult challenges not least the global shortage of qualified nurses and the pressures placed on educators to retain student nurses.

‘My school has been quite pushy about the Oxbridge thing’: voice and choice of higher education

Whilst government policies are now pushing teachers to listen to pupils, this concern is largely framed within the school improvement agenda. This is not the only arena where listening to pupils counts. This article examines the ways in which two young people, making a significant choice about which university to attend, felt unable to discuss their interests and concerns with their teachers. In one case, this resulted in a young woman doing less well in her examinations in order to avoid getting her first preference of Oxbridge, and securing her ‘real choice’ at another Russell Group university. The other was not invited by his school to apply to Oxbridge, despite a desire to go there which he felt unable to articulate at school. We suggest that, given the current concern over widening participation, these two cases provide hints that all is not well with school gate-keeping and career guidance procedures.

How British-Chinese parents support their children: a view from the regions

Although the high level of achievement experienced by British-Chinese pupils in schools is well documented, the Chinese community in the UK is a relatively under-researched ethnic group. There is only patchy information on ways in which British-Chinese parents and children engage with education. It is often presumed the success of Chinese pupils is due to conformist cultural practices leading to the enactment of effective cultural capital. In this paper we examine support strategies adopted by professional and non-professional British-Chinese parents of young people in secondary schools in the East Midlands of England. Through demographic and qualitative interview data we look at how British-Chinese parents support their children’s educational achievement. Our study suggests that the parents adopt similar strategies to those seen in British and North American parents, yet with some significant class nuances related to cultural divergence. This suggests that class influence is less rigorous than other analyses, being supplanted by cultural dispositions.

Development of social relationships, interactions and behaviours in early education settings

Recent research and policy regarding the advantages of early years provision has focused largely on the enhancement and development of cognitive skills for preschoolers. This study, based in the United Kingdom, focuses on a range of cognitive and social skills and identifies beneficial characteristics of a government pilot scheme for 2-year-olds in areas of social disadvantage. Data were collected from nursery managers and parents across six early years settings using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods centred around in-depth observational techniques focused on children. Results indicate that in addition to the development of cognitive skills, children showed increased confidence and modes of communication and interaction and that these were associated with the varied activities and routines established within the early years settings. Some variations in terms of frequency and quality of interactions, activities and practice were identified in settings; however, interpersonal support for learning and development was consistent across settings.

The Importance of Diagrams, Graphics and Other Visual Representations in STEM Teaching

In this chapter I look at the way we think of communication and suggest that there is an over-reliance upon linguistic and textual modes at the expense of visual and spatial modes of communication. I argue that schools fail to grasp the significance of the visual nature of communication and the implications for learning within STEM subjects. After making an argument for the importance of visuospatial forms, I provide an extensive review of the cognitive and psychological literature covering various key aspects of visualisation and how it relates to teaching STEM subjects in early secondary education. It is likely that much of this will be novel to STEM teachers yet provides us with new possibilities for opening up classroom pedagogy.

Summary and Looking Ahead

This is a survey of research on the social and political dimensions of mathematics education. Based on a critical review of current thinking in five selected areas, the survey found that (1) equitable access and participation in mathematics education is achievable in some countries; (2) mathematics is increasingly perceived as a negotiable field of social practices arising from specific needs and serving certain interests; (3) research seems to re-entrench stereotypes about identities that excel at mathematics and tends to assume a binary between structure and agency; (4) the relations between activism, the material conditions of inequality and mathematics education has remained under-developed and under-represented; and, (5) the nature of a society’s economic structure influences relations in a classroom and may lead to a marginalisation of mathematics learners, specifically those from poor and working class households.

Survey on the State-of-the Art

This is a survey of research on the social and political dimensions of mathematics education. Based on a critical review of current thinking in five selected areas, the survey found that (1) equitable access and participation in mathematics education is achievable in some countries; (2) mathematics is increasingly perceived as a negotiable field of social practices arising from specific needs and serving certain interests; (3) research seems to re-entrench stereotypes about identities that excel at mathematics and tends to assume a binary between structure and agency; (4) the relations between activism, the material conditions of inequality and mathematics education has remained under-developed and under-represented; and, (5) the nature of a society’s economic structure influences relations in a classroom and may lead to a marginalisation of mathematics learners, specifically those from poor and working class households.

Steve Through the Years

Unusually for a book of this genre, we have provided a selection of photographs of Steve. These range from a grinning 4-year-old in 1948 who is clearly up to no good, right up to his participation in a writing workshop for South African doctoral students in July 2014. We include these in order to provide very graphic evidence of the man behind the work. Whilst we read of the social turn, the philosophy of mathematics, the contradictions within various forms of constructivism, intersubjectivity, social justice and activity theory, we should remember the boy, the brother, the father, the husband, the friend and colleague, the scholar. The trajectory Steve has followed in both his private life and his professional activity, means the fundamental values he enacts surely makes us all feel like family or friends. This chapter then is our family album.

Mapping the Field and Documenting the Contribution

In this opening chapter we want to do more than provide an overview of the book and summaries of its chapters. We want to set the scene and provide a rationale for a book celebrating the life’s work and contribution of a valued academic. Through this book we want to be able, with a group of a dozen or so other colleagues, to say something about the field of mathematics education through a focus on the contribution of one key player – Stephen Lerman.