This open access book is about the shaping of international relations in mathematics over the last two hundred years. It focusses on institutions and organizations that were created to frame the international dimension of mathematical research. Today, striking evidence of globalized mathematics is provided by countless international meetings and the worldwide repository ArXiv. The text follows the sinuous path that was taken to reach this state, from the long nineteenth century, through the two wars, to the present day. International cooperation in mathematics was well established by 1900, centered in Europe. The first International Mathematical Union, IMU, founded in 1920 and disbanded in 1932, reflected above all the trauma of WW I. Since 1950 the current IMU has played an increasing role in defining mathematical excellence, as is shown both in the historical narrative and by analyzing data about the International Congresses of Mathematicians. For each of the three periods discussed, interactions are explored between world politics, the advancement of scientific infrastructures, and the inner evolution of mathematics. Readers will thus take a new look at the place of mathematics in world culture, and how international organizations can make a difference. Aimed at mathematicians, historians of science, scientists, and the scientifically inclined general public, the book will be valuable to anyone interested in the history of science on an international level.

"The early chapters contain the topics from linear algebra that students need to know in order to read the rest of the book. The later chapters are devoted to advanced topics, which allow students with more experience to study more intricate types of frames. Toward that end, a Student Presentation section gives detailed proofs of fairly technical results with the intention that a student could work out these proofs independently and prepare a presentation to a class or research group. The authors have also presented some stories in the Anecdotes section about how this material has motivated and influenced their students."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume collects the texts of five courses given in the Arithmetic Geometry Research Programme 2009-2010 at the CRM Barcelona. All of them deal with characteristic p global fields; the common theme around which they are centered is the arithmetic of L-functions (and other special functions), investigated in various aspects. Three courses examine some of the most important recent ideas in the positive characteristic theory discovered by Goss (a field in tumultuous development, which is seeing a number of spectacular advances): they cover respectively crystals over function fields (with a number of applications to L-functions of t-motives), gamma and zeta functions in characteristic p, and the binomial theorem. The other two are focused on topics closer to the classical theory of abelian varieties over number fields: they give respectively a thorough introduction to the arithmetic of Jacobians over function fields (including the current status of the BSD conjecture and its geometric analogues, and the construction of Mordell-Weil groups of high rank) and a state of the art survey of Geometric Iwasawa Theory explaining the recent proofs of various versions of the Main Conjecture, in the commutative and non-commutative settings.

The history of mathematics education is an interdisciplinary research area that is experiencing a significant development and this book presents recent work in this area. This book is the result of the seventh conference ICHME (International Conference on the History of Mathematics Education) that took place at Erbacher Hof, Mainz (Germany) from 19th to 23rd of September 2022. Nowadays, the history of education is of the utmost importance for assessing the general development of the educational system(s) in which mathematics education occurs. Usually, the history of education is confined to history within a given civilization, country or nation. However, the quality of the research for a given nation is enhanced when situated among various specific cases, and comparative studies provide essential tools to broaden the perspectives to an international level. Moreover, mathematics, as a school discipline, has always functioned at the crossroads between general education and professional training, thus relating its teaching history to professional working environments as well. The 24 chapters in this book reflect this wide area of research.

This is an open access book available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Following the centenary of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, this volume features contributions from leading science historians from around the world on the changing roles of the institution in international affairs from its foundation in 1922 to the present. The case studies presented in this volume show the multitude of functions that IUPAP had and how these were related to the changing international political contexts. The book is divided into three parts. The first discusses the interwar period demonstrating how the exclusion of communities of the Central Powers from international scientific institutions imposed by victorious allied countries made IUPAP ineffective until the end of World War II. The second part analyzes the changing roles assumed by IUPAP starting from its complete renovation after World War II. Case studies covering the role of IUPAP in physics education, in metrology, in joint commissions with other unions and in defining the complex relations between pure and applied physics provide examples of IUPAP's impact on the world of science. Part III squarely addresses the science diplomacy aspects of IUPAP during the Cold War highlighting the importance of IUPAP in furthering diplomatic goals and explaining the origin of the pursuit of the free circulation of scientists as the activity that characterized the main function of international unions during the Cold War. Highlighting how often scientific agendas and political imperatives were entangled in the activities of IUPAP, the book analyzes the work of the Union as exercises of science diplomacy, thus contributing to the current debate on the use of science and technology in international relations.

ALAN 1. BISHOP The first International Handbook on Mathematics Education was published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1996. However, most of the writing for that handbook was done in 1995 and generally reflected the main research and development foci prior to 1994. There were four sections, 36 chapters, and some 150 people contributed to the final volume either as author, reviewer, editor, or critical friend. The task was a monumental one, attempting to cover the major research and practice developments in the international field of mathematics education as it appeared to the contributors in 1995. Inevitably there were certain omissions, some developments were only starting to emerge, and some literatures were only sketchy and speculative. However that Handbook has had to be reprinted three times, so it clearly fulfilled a need and I personally hope that it lived up to what I wrote in its Introduction: The Handbook thus attempts not merely to present a description of the international 'state-of-the-field', but also to offer synthetic and reflective overviews on the different directions being taken by the field, on the gaps existing in our present knowledge, on the current problems being faced, and on the future possibilities for development. (Bishop et aI. , 1996) Since that time there has been even more activity in our field, and now seems a good time to take stock again, to reflect on what has happened since 1995, and to create a second Handbook with the same overall goals.

What comes first, class management or student engagement? How can the ‘real world’ be used to engage learners? What is the role of technology in engaging students? And is ‘understanding’ or ‘exam success’ more engaging? In the modern world, success in school mathematics can determine life chances. It is therefore vital to engage children and young people in learning mathematics. Engaging in Mathematics in the Classroom brings together the debates concerning mathematical engagement and draws on first-hand experience and key research to promote successful classroom practice. It considers what engagement looks like at different ages and the implications of this for the classroom. Accessibly written with examples of successful classroom practice, activities and projects, the book covers: Planning and managing engagement in learning; Mathematical understandings and meanings; Early Primary and the number system; Primary/Secondary Transition and geometrical thinking; Secondary school: Adolescence and algebraic activity; Post-16 and infinity; Learning across the lifespan. Written by a leading authority in the field, this timely text will be essential reading for all trainee and practising teachers of mathematics.

"The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them."--Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine" This is perhaps the most important mathematics book of our time. Francis Su shows mathematics is an experience of the mind and, most important, of the heart."--James Tanton, Global Math Project For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity's most beautiful ideas. In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award-winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires--such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love--and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother's, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher's letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can--and must--be open to all.

This multidisciplinary collection of essays provides a critical and comprehensive understanding of how knowledge has been made, moved and used, by whom and for what purpose. To explain how new knowledge emerges, this volume offers a two-fold conceptual move: challenging both the premise of insurmountable differences between confined, autarkic cultures and the linear, nation-centered approach to the spread of immutable stocks of knowledge. Rather, the conceptual focus of the book is on the circulation, amalgamation and reconfiguration of locally shaped bodies of knowledge on a broader, global scale. The authors emphasize that the histories of interaction have been made less transparent through the study of cultural representations thus distorting the view of how knowledge is actually produced. Leading scholars from a range of fields, including history, philosophy, social anthropology and comparative culture research, have contributed chapters which cover the period from the early modern age to the present day and investigate settings in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Their particular focus is on areas that have largely been neglected until now. In this work, readers from many disciplines will find new approaches to writing the global history of knowledge-making, especially historians, scholars of the history and philosophy of science, and those in culture studies.

The word "critical" in the title of this collection has three meanings, all of which are relevant. One meaning, as applied to a situation or problem, is "at a point of crisis". A second meaning is "expressing adverse or disapproving comments or judgments". A third is related to the verb "to critique", meaning "to analyze the merits and faults of". The authors contributing to this book pose challenging questions, from multiple perspectives, about the roles of mathematics in society and the implications for education. Traditional reasons for teaching mathematics include: preparing a new generation of mathematics researchers and a cadre of technically competent users of mathematics; training students to think logically; and because mathematics is as much part of cultural heritage as literature or music. These reasons remain valid, though open to critique, but a deeper analysis is required that recognizes the roles of mathematics in framing many aspects of contemporary society, that will connect mathematics education to the lived experiences of students, their communities, and society in general, and that acknowledges the global ethical responsibilities of mathematicians and mathematics educators. The book is organized in four sections (1) Mathematics education: For what and why? (2) Globalization and cultural diversity, (3) Mathematics, education, and society and (4) Social justice in, and through, mathematics education The chapters address fundamental issues such as the relevance of school mathematics in people's lives; creating a sense of agency for the field of mathematics education, and redefining the relationship between mathematics as discipline, mathematics as school subject and mathematics as part of people's lives.