Citizenship Education Math

CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF SCHOOL MATHEMATICS

by Elaine Simmt, UA

This paper suggests that the math classroom and the teacher has a role in citizenship education.

Mathematics teaches us The Art of Problem Posing*1 that can be applied to any field not just that of mathematics. So then the student of mathematics needs to see how this learned questioning can be used to make them better citizens by questioning events in their communities, provinces and nation. Every student questions the need to study mathematics which is answered by Keith Devlin with the quote "the study of mathematics is ultimately the study of humanity itself" (Devlin, 1998, 9).

Mathematics teachers have always tried to show the relevance of mathematics to the participation in students' everyday world. The NCTM articulates their position for the goals of mathematics education first for life, second for cultural heritage, thirdly for the workplace and fourth for scientific advancement.

"When students are occasioned by such prompts to act mathematically they specify and negotiate the problems they seek and the resolutions they come to. Because most problems that arise in our day to day living are not pre-specified but arise in our actions and interactions, active and critical participation in society requires citizens to specify and negotiate problems that are important and to evaluate resolutions."(ibid)

Unlike much of mathematics which when it is applied the correct answer is required, in citizenship there can be many answers that meet with the "truth" that mathematics teaches us to seek out and find.

Teaching students to identify and pose problems, to explain themselves in terms others can understand and to question the invisible structures of mathematics is key to developing informed, active and critical citizens. Mathematics has a role in citizenship education because it has the potential to help us understand our society and our role in shaping it. (ibid)

Mathematics should encourage all participants in our society to think and solve any problems that arise by questioning and conversation with which others can understand, and solutions that are fair to all.

The mathematics teacher has a new role that dates back to the ancient Greeks and that is to teach our students how to think and solve problems on both human and academic levels.


1. The Art of Problem Posing by Stephen Brown and Marion Walter, Routledge 2005

References

Devlin, Keith. 1998. The language of mathematics: making the invisible visible New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.