Lifting the quality and effectiveness of mathematics education provision in English-medium schools in Aotearoa New Zealand
What will it take?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26686/nzaroe.v28.8356Abstract
Mathematics education in English-medium schools in Aotearoa New Zealand currently reproduces inequity. There is widespread concern about overall levels of student achievement and who participates and who succeeds. Rapid, and accelerating, social and technological change impacts what students need to know in mathematics and statistics and increases its significance. There are fundamental debates about how mathematics education should respond to inequity and rapid change. Content and pedagogy are both contested spaces. Research in mathematics education tends to exacerbate rather than resolve this contestation. In this cacophony it is hard to hear marginalised voices and yet these groups are the most impacted by current practices. Mathematics education is entwined with other curriculum areas and has far-reaching consequences; therefore, policy has to treat improving system performance as a complex problem requiring intervention at multiple levels to achieve equitable outcomes for students.
Downloads
References
Anthony, G., Hunter, R., & Hunter, J. (2016). Whither ability grouping: Changing the object of groupwork. In B. White, M. Chinnappan & S. Trenholm (Eds.). Opening up mathematics education research (Proceedings of the 39th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia). MERGA. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED572400.pdf
Anthony, G., & Walshaw, M. (2007). Effective pedagogy in mathematics/pāngarau: Best evidence synthesis iteration. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2515/5951
Bobis, J., Clarke, B., Clarke, D., Thomas, G., Wright, R., Young-Loveridge, J., & Gould, P. (2005). Supporting teachers in the development of young children’s mathematical thinking: Three large scale cases. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 16, 27-57. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03217400
Bonne, L. (2016). National standards in their seventh year. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/NZCER%20National%20Standards%20Report.pdf
Byrne, D. (1998). Complexity theory and the social sciences: An introduction. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203003916
Byrne, D., & Callaghan, G. (2013). Complexity theory and the social sciences: The state of the art. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203519585
Chapman, D. (2004). Curriculum: Sitting on a fault line. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 1(2), 74-79.
Cilliers, P. (1998). Complexity and postmodernism: Understanding complex systems. Routledge.
Clark, J. (2010). National standards: Are they up to standard? New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 7(1), 15-28.
Cochran-Smith, M., Ell, F., Ludlow, L., Grudnoff, L., & Aitken, G. (2014). The challenge and promise of complexity theory for teacher education research. Teachers College Record, 116(6), 1-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811411600407
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2006). Complexity and education: Inquiries into learning, teaching, and research. Routledge.
Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2012). Fitting teacher education in/to/for an increasingly complex world. Complicity, 9(1), 30-40. https://doi.org/10.29173/cmplct16531
Davis, B., Sumara, D., & D’Amour, L. (2012). Understanding school districts as learning systems: Some lessons from three cases of complex transformation. Journal of Educational Change, 13, 373-399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-012-9183-4
Educational Assessment Research Unit & New Zealand Council for Educational Research. (2018). Mathematics and statistics 2018 – Key findings. Report 19. https://nmssa-production.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/2018_NMSSA_MATHEMATICS.pdf
Education Review Office. (2018). Keeping children engaged and achieving in mathematics.
https://ero.govt.nz/our-research/teaching-strategies-that-work-mathematics
Higgins, J., & Parsons, R. (2011). Improving outcomes in mathematics in New Zealand: A dynamic approach to the policy process. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 9, 503-522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-011-9275-2
Hunter, J. (2006). The numeracy project: Foundations and development. ACE papers, 17.
https://hdl.handle.net/2292/25161
Hunter, J. (2022). Challenging and disrupting deficit discourses in mathematics education: Positioning young diverse learners to document and share their mathematical funds of knowledge. Research in Mathematics Education, 24(2), 187-201. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794802.2022.2088607
Hunter, J., Hunter, R., & Anthony, G. (2019). Shifting towards equity: Challenging teacher views about student capability in mathematics. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 32, 37-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-019-00293-y
Mason, M. (Ed.). (2008). Complexity theory and the philosophy of education. Wiley-Blackwell. https://ztcprep.com/library/TESOL/Complexity_Theory_and_the_Philosophy_of_Education/Complexity_Theory_and_the_Philosophy_of_Education_(www.ztcprep.com).pdf
McChesney, J. (2017). Searching the New Zealand curriculum landscape for clarity and coherence: Some tensions in mathematics and statistics. Curriculum Matters, 13, 115-131. https://doi.org/10.18296/cm.0025
McMurchy-Pilkington, C., Trinick, T., & Meaney, T. (2013). Mathematics curriculum development and indigenous language revitalisation: Contested spaces. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 25(3), 341-360. https://hdl.handle.net/2292/27912
Ministry of Education. (1992). Mathematics in the New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2020). Progress and achievement and the context of mathematics and statistics learning in New Zealand (English-medium education). Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education. (2022). Te Mātaiaho: The refreshed New Zealand curriculum. Te Poutāhū Curriculum Centre. https://curriculumrefresh.education.govt.nz/te-mataiaho
Ministry of Education. (2023). A short synthesis of findings from our large education studies.
Morrow, N., Rata, E., & Evans, T. (2022). The New Zealand mathematics curriculum: A critical commentary. STEM Education, 2(1), 59-72. https://doi.org/10.3934/steme.2022004
Openshaw, R., & Walshaw, M. (2010a). What can we learn from history? The early post-World War Two debate over literacy and numeracy standards, 1945-1962 in perspective. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 7(2), 125-142.
Openshaw, R., & Walshaw, M. (2010b). Literacy, numeracy and political struggle: The National Standards initiative in context. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 45(2), 99-105.
Osberg, D., & Biesta, G. (2007). Beyond presence: Epistemological and pedagogical implications of ‘strong’ emergence. Interchange, 38(1), 31-51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-007-9014-3
Patterson, R. (2015). Un(ac)acountable. Why millions on maths returned little. The New Zealand Initiative.
Pfannkuch, M., Wild, C., Arnold, P., & Budgett, S. (2020). Reflections on a 20-year statistics education research journey 1999-2019. SET, 1, 27-33.
Philips, D. (2010). Curriculum and assessment policy in New Zealand: Ten years of reforms. Educational Review, 52(2), 143-153. https://doi.org/10.1080/713664034
Pirie, S., & Kieren, T. (1989). A recursive theory of mathematical understanding. For the Learning of Mathematics, 9(3), 7-11.
Priestley, M., & Sinnema, C. (2014). Downgraded curriculum? An analysis of knowledge in new curriculua in Scotland and New Zealand. The Curriculum Journal, 25(1), 50-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2013.872047
Rendall, S., Medina, E., Sutcliffe, R., & Marshall, N. (2020). TIMSS 2018/19: Mathematics Year 5. Ministry of Education. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/timss-201819-mathematics-year-5
Royal Society Te Apārangi. (2021). Pāngarau mathematics and tauanga statistics in Aotearoa New Zealand. Royal Society Te Apārangi.
Rubie-Davies, C. (2015). Becoming a high expectation teacher: Raising the bar. Routledge.
Sutcliffe, R., Marshall, N., Rendall, S., & Medina, E. (2020). TIMSS 2018/19: Mathematics Year 9. Ministry of Education.
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/205693/TIMSS-2018-Year-9-Mathsb.pdf
Tearney, F. (2016). History of education in New Zealand. McGuinness Institute. https://www.mcguinnessinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/20161213-Working-Paper-2016%EF%80%A203-History-of-education-in-New-Zealand.pdf
Tokona te Raki. (2022). Kōkirihia: The plan for removing streaming from our schools. Tokona te Raki.
https://tokona-wp.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2022/12/Ko%CC%84kirihia-Final-1.pdf
Tweed, B. (2021). The doing of curriculum mathematics: The case of an Indigenous Māori school in Aotearoa/New Zealand. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42(5-6), 914-931. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2021.1941764
Walshaw, M., & Openshaw, R. (2011). Mathematics curriculum change: Parliamentary discussion over the past two decades. Curriculum Matters, 7, 8-25. https://doi.org/10.18296/cm.0128
Young-Loveridge, J. (1991). The development of children's number concepts from ages five to nine: Early mathematics learning project: Phase 2 Volume 1: Report of findings. University of Waikato.
Young-Loveridge, J. (2009). A decade of reform in mathematics education: Results for 2009 and earlier years. In Findings from the New Zealand Numeracy Development Projects 2009. Learning Media. https://nzmaths.co.nz/sites/default/files/Numeracy/References/Comp09/NumeracyCompendium09.pdf
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The Author(s) retain ownership of the copyright in the Article but hereby grant the Publisher an exclusive license to publish the article.
NZAROE gives authors full permission to deposit their articles in publicly accessible institutional repositories, providing that:
- Articles are placed in repositories after publication.
- Metadata about articles include the DOI and journal issue information.