A common concern of all the authors of this volume is an attempt to draw attention to issues related to the formatting power of mathematics and to its role as implicit knowledge, which results in a process of demathematisation.

The book Critical Mathematics Education provides Ole Skovsmose’s recent contribution to the further development of critical mathematics education. It gives examples of learning environments, which invite students to engage in investigative processes. It discusses how mathematics can be used for identifying cases of social injustice, and it shows how mathematics itself can become investigated critically. Critical Mathematics Education addresses issues with respect to racism, oppression, erosion of democracy, sustainability, formatting power of mathematics, and banality of mathematical expertise. It explores relationships between mathematics, ethics, crises, and critique. Ole Skovsmose has published what I might call his magnum opus, a 280-page synthesis and extension of his work simply called Critical Mathematics Education. In it he brings together his deep philosophical understanding and theorisation of mathematics itself, mathematics in society from a critical perspective, and mathematics in the teaching, learning and formation of students. For the mathematics education community, especially those concerned with social justice, philosophy, critical pedagogy and the nature of mathematics this is likely to be the publishing event of the year. In this book he offers something lacking in the literature, a philosophy of applied mathematics, as well as much more. Paul Ernest, Emeritus Professor, University of Exeter, UK

Research within a socio-political paradigm or “turn” has been gradually recognized and institutionalized as an important part of mathematics education. This book focuses on the neglected problems, tensions and contradictions evoked by this process. The authors do this by challenging current regimes of truth about mathematics education; by identifying how recent technological developments challenge or suspend contemporary conceptions of mathematics education; by critiquing the ideological entanglement of mathematics, its education and schooling with capitalism; by self-reflective analyses of researchers' impacts on shaping what is and can be perceived as the practice of mathematics education (research); and by confronting main-stream mathematics education with socio-political contexts that are usually neglected. In this way, "mathematical rationality" becomes contextualized within contemporary society, where it reproduces itself through technologies, social practices, media and other spheres of social life.

The picture on the front of this book is an illustration for Totakahini: The tale of the parrot, by Rabindranath Tagore, in which he satirized education as a magnificent golden cage. Opening the cage addresses mathematics education as a complex socio-political phenomenon, exploring the vast terrain that spans critique and politics. Opening the cage includes contributions from educators writing critically about mathematics education in diverse contexts. They demonstrate that mathematics education is politics, they investigate borderland positions, they address the nexus of mathematics, education, and power, and they explore educational possibilities. Mathematics education is not a free enterprise. It is carried on behind bars created by economic, political, and social demands. This cage might not be as magnificent as that in Tagore’s fable. But it is strong. Opening the cage is a critical and political challenge, and we may be surprised to see what emerges.

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.

Ongoing Advancements in Philosophy of Mathematics Education approaches the philosophy of mathematics education in a forward movement, analyzing, reflecting, and proposing significant contemporary themes in the field of mathematics education. The theme that gives life to the book is philosophy of mathematics education understood as arising from the intertwining between philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of education which, through constant analytical and reflective work regarding teaching and learning practices in mathematics, is materialized in its own discipline, philosophy of mathematics education. This is the field of investigation of the chapters in the book. The chapters are written by an international cohort of authors, from a variety of countries, regions, and continents. Some of these authors work with philosophical and psychological foundations traditionally accepted by Western civilization. Others expose theoretical foundations based on a new vision and comprising innovative approaches to historical and present-day issues in educational philosophy. The final third of the book is devoted to these unique and innovative research stances towards important and change resistant societal topics such as racism, technology gaps, or the promotion of creativity in the field of mathematics education.

Digital games offer enormous potential for learning and engagement in mathematics ideas and processes. This volume offers multidisciplinary perspectives—of educators, cognitive scientists, psychologists and sociologists—on how digital games influence the social activities and mathematical ideas of learners/gamers. Contributing authors identify opportunities for broadening current understandings of how mathematical ideas are fostered (and embedded) within digital game environments. In particular, the volume advocates for new and different ways of thinking about mathematics in our digital age—proposing that these mathematical ideas and numeracy practices are distinct from new literacies or multiliteracies. The authors acknowledge that the promise of digital games has not always been realised/fulfilled. There is emerging, and considerable, evidence to suggest that traditional discipline boundaries restrict opportunities for mathematical learning. Throughout the book, what constitutes mathematics learnings and pedagogy is contested. Multidisciplinary viewpoints are used to describe and understand the potential of digital games for learning mathematics and identify current tensions within the field. Mathematics learning is defined as being about problem solving; engagement in mathematical ideas and processes; and social engagement. The artefact, which is the game, shapes the ways in which the gamers engage with the social activity of gaming. In parallel, the book (as a te xtual artefact) will be supported by Springer’s online platform—allowing for video and digital communication (including links to relevant websites) to be used as supplementary material and establish a dynamic communication space.

In most countries, only very limited time resources are available for statistics education within mathematics education. Thus, statistics education research needs to develop teaching-learning arrangements that are compact and applicable to classrooms. Christian Büscher designs and investigates a compact teaching-learning arrangement which aims at mathematical and reflective knowledge about statistics. Central results include the specification of the learning content of statistical measures, an empirical reconstruction of students’ learning processes towards statistical measures, and the identification of students’ situated reflections about mathematics within their learning processes.

This book offers fresh insight and understanding of the many ways in which children, youth and adults may find their paths to mathematics. The chapters of the volume offer and analyse promising new ways into mathematics. The focus is on spaces and modalities of learning, dialogue and inquiry, embodiment and aesthetic experience, information and communication technology and on the use of mathematics in public communication. The chapters present new mathematical activities and conceptions enriching the repertoire of mathematics education practices. Critical commentaries discuss the innovative potential of the new approaches to the teaching and learning of mathematics. As a consequence, the commentaries point to requirements and open issues in the field of research in mathematics education. The volume is remarkably international. Teachers and researchers from 14 countries authored 21 chapters and 7 commentaries. The reader is invited to reflect on the particular effect of presenting avenues to mathematics contrived in diverse national settings in which the praxis of mathematics education might look different compared to what happens in the reader’s place. The book starts a series of sourcebooks edited by CIEAEM, the Commission Internationale pour l’Etude et l’Amélioration de l’Enseignement des Mathématiques / International Commission for the Study and Improvement of Mathematics Education.

This volume documents on-going research and theorising in the sub-field of mathematics education devoted to the teaching and learning of mathematical modelling and applications. Mathematical modelling provides a way of conceiving and resolving problems in the life world of people whether these range from the everyday individual numeracy level to sophisticated new problems for society at large. Mathematical modelling and real world applications are considered as having potential for multi-disciplinary work that involves knowledge from a variety of communities of practice such as those in different workplaces (e.g., those of educators, designers, construction engineers, museum curators) and in different fields of academic endeavour (e.g., history, archaeology, mathematics, economics). From an educational perspective, researching the development of competency in real world modelling involves research situated in crossing the boundaries between being a student engaged in modelling or mathematical application to real word tasks in the classroom, being a teacher of mathematical modelling (in or outside the classroom or bridging both), and being a modeller of the world outside the classroom. This is the focus of many of the authors of the chapters in this book. All authors of this volume are members of the International Community of Teachers of Mathematical Modelling (ICTMA), the peak research body into researching the teaching and learning of mathematical modelling at all levels of education from the early years to tertiary education as well as in the workplace.