Conference Agenda

This paper tells an overarching story emerging from an inquiry into the affordances and constraints of using global citizenship (GC) themes in secondary mathematics classrooms in Scotland. I argue that not only does mathematics, as a human tool for measuring modelling and making sense of the world, have something distinctive to offer GC education but also that GC opens spaces to rethink and potentially rewild mathematics education. The project has roots in ‘global citizenship education otherwise’ (Andreotti 2021) and critical mathematics education for social justice (Skovsmose 2014, Weist et al 2007, Stinson et al 2012). It is pragmatically connected to the current requirements of the Scottish ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ (Scottish executive 2004) where Global citizenship education is an entitlement for all learners and the responsibility of all teachers.

The secondary mathematics teachers in this project have chosen to attend subject specific professional learning courses offered by a development education centre. They engaged with GC themes and classroom materials that contextualise mathematics tasks in complex and sometimes controversial topics. Some of the teachers were able to then use these materials in their classrooms.

Two sub plots identified in the research project are drawn on here. The first describes the power and tenacity of what I have called ‘business as usual mathematics education’ where the overriding purpose is to meet performance targets in the achievement of tradeable qualifications. The second describes teachers finding and giving space, both of which require professional and pedagogic courage, in which they teach about, through and for GC.

I privilege possibility over probability to suggest that global citizenship education can help to rewild the damaged and denuded site that is the typical mathematics classroom (Ernest 2020) where mathematics is the “handmaiden of capital” (Darder 2018 pviii). GC materials (see e.g. Scotdec 2021) which echo the “spiritual turn” (Gutierrez) and the “socio-ecological ecological” turn (Coles 2022) that have been called for in mathematics education, require dispositions and pedagogies that may be unfamiliar to, but also welcomed by mathematics teachers.

Following their meta review of typologies of GCE Pashby et al (2020 p.158) “identify three different layers of analysis and intervention … methodological (the level of doing), epistemological (the level of thinking) and ontological the level of being.” Each of these maps to this story and I add a fourth axiological the level of valuing. When the teachers adapt their pedagogy to give choice or enable collaboration they are engaging methodologically. When the teachers reimagine the curriculum to embrace wider purposes that better match the use and beauty of mathematics they are engaging epistemologically. When the teachers carve out spaces within which pedagogy and curriculum can be enacted differently, they are engaging ontologically. When the teachers respect young people as more than Homus O Economicus (Valero 2018) in the making, care about their foregrounds (Skovsmose 2012) and mind about our shared world (Griffiths & Murray 2017) they are engaging axiologically.

A recovered ecosystem is not a virgin one and it is important to manage our expectations of the mathematics classroom. The social environment of individual competitive capitalism, austerity policies and powerful social media places pressure to adapt on teachers and young people. The education policy environment in Scotland seems to be very encouraging for the teacher who is committed to social justice and yet in practice the requirement to raise attainment always dominates the requirement to embed learning for Sustainability (Scottish Government 1012). This project has given some glimpses that suggest that GC in mathematics can have the strength of a plant growing up through concrete and making a crack in what seemed to be impenetrable.  

India’s National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCERT, 2006a) posited an epistemic change towards learning. Learning was seen through a constructivist lens with the learner being focused on in the policy discourse (Sarangapani, 2007; Saxena, 2006). The Position Paper in Teaching of Mathematics proposed the guideline of ‘Math for all’ (NCERT, 2006b, p. 12). Curriculum was proposed to be coherent, ambitious and having depth rather than being tall and spindly (NCERT, 2006b, p. 7). It was recommended that mathematics learning should cater to the minority of learners who have the potential to do well in mathematics as well as include the majority of learners who usually find mathematics challenging (NCERT, 2006b, p. 12). The proposed shift raised an expectation on teachers’ role in classrooms. They were expected to make the classroom space more inclusive in order to make mathematics learning equitable. The teachers were assumed to have a role of implementing these envisioned changes in their practice by implementing reform-based curriculum and textbooks (Chowdhuri, 2020). NCF 2005 and earlier policies as well as curricular frameworks have been criticised to follow the route of top-down approach in bringing any change (Anand & Lall, 2022; Ball & Cohen, 1996; Batra, 2005; Choppin, 2009; Remillard, 2005).

It has been well researched that teachers negotiate with reform-based textbooks and curriculum in varying ways (Remillard, 2005). Teachers’ negotiations with any proposed reform are a product of their identity and beliefs (Heyd-Metzuyanim, 2019, Thompson, 1984). The proposed research explores the relation between teachers’ identities, their beliefs and choices they make in their practice. For the given research, case study of seven teachers teaching mathematics in primary grades were done. These teachers were employed in a non-governmental organisation (NGO) but were teaching in state-run government primary level schools. The site of research presents a unique case of partnership of an NGO with the government. Open-ended interviews were carried ahead with each of them. Classrooms of five of these teachers were observed for a period of a week to see how their choices translate into practice.

The conclusions derived from the study discusses how teachers viewed themselves as an agent of change. Working within the protocols followed in the school and the expectations set by the NGO, they kept the learner in focus while making any decisions related to their practice. These practices encouraged both individual and collective participation of learners. Collaboration through group work was encouraged to make learners interdependent. These collaborative practices shared the onus of learning within the learners. Teachers also talked about challenges and limitations they usually faced.

This proposed research will add to the discourse of teachers’ engagement with mathematics education reforms in India. At global level, teachers’ engagement with the reforms has been researched upon from teachers’ identity, teachers’ beliefs, teachers’ agency perspectives and this research will enrich the existent discourse from the India context (Anand & Lall, 2022). It is imperative that theorization of teachers’ engagement with reforms is evolved from ground and this research will help take steps in that direction.

The following paper comes from one of the dimensions that make up the Yard4All project, built under the Erasmus+ program. To reform conventional education, escape the traditional four walls and get in touch with reality, this document exposes the importance of working mathematical concepts in concrete, bringing this curricular area closer to children's daily lives. According to Feille (2021, 2013), the schoolyard is an essential pedagogical tool in the holistic development of any child, that helps them achieve several skills.

When students are able to touch their learning, experience it in real life, their understanding seems to emerge like snap peas peeking out of the fresh dirt. Their green tips poking above the nourished and moist earth. Nurtured with care and attention, they stretch and reach for fresh air and sun. (Feill, 2013, p.1)

The theoretical component presented here is linked to a research question: What practical activities, using mathematical concepts, are necessary to promote the global development of children, while exploiting the schoolyard?

Consequently, this project essentially defines three main objectives: (i) Develop and improve, in every child, cognitive, social and emotional skills, throughout non-formal learning and teaching environments, using outdoor activities in the schoolyard, that follow the principles of permaculture, while using mathematical concepts; (ii) Develop practical and useful activities that motivate all children to have a positive attitude towards Mathematics, where the entire school community is included and can actively participate; and (iii) Create a guide for teachers and other educational actors, specifying some activities, within the scope of Mathematics, for children with special educational needs and children without impairments, between six and twelve years old.

Firstly, it is important to define permaculture, since all the activities created are based on it. Permaculture is a form of agroecology and an alternative paradigm of production, based on ecological principles such as recycling waste, minimizing energy and water use, maximizing genetic diversity, regenerating soil, and promoting other beneficial biological synergies (Hathaway, 2016). Permaculture school gardens offer particularly valuable opportunities for a sustainable education, crucial for the XXI century learner. This practice is innovative in the school context and can provide children with practical experience of sustainable production means (Yard4All, 2022). But to work in a learning environment with these principles, children need to go outdoors and get to know nature, sense the biosphere, and explore their motor, cognitive, emotional, and social abilities. In fact, while discovering the schoolyard, children find opportunities to make decisions that encourage problem solving and creative thinking (Sá, 2016). Mathematics is often seen by children as a “bogeyman”, being considered not very humane and useful for everyday life. But Mathematics is in any day-to-day circumstances, and it is possible to relate it to various topics, formally and informally. The Yard4All (2022) project focuses on one of the most appropriate ways to work with Mathematics nowadays, using it with context. Mathematics in Context aims to use mathematical concepts in significant real contexts, moving from concrete and informal situations to the formal understanding of abstract concepts (Martins, Fernandes, & Guedes, 2020). This allows children to gain confidence and feel predisposed to learn Mathematics, in a place where they are curious, safe and, at the same time, have unpredictability (Feille, 2013) – the schoolyard. As a pedagogical tool, the schoolyard allows children to participate in the development of “their social and cognitive abilities, their sense of connection with other people, with nature and their natural environment” (Tsevreni & Bentenidi, 2013, p.39), including children with special needs. The schoolyard is a place where everyone can have their sense of belonging and participate in decision-making, characteristics of an inclusive education.