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In the workplace mathematics does not announce itself: towards overcoming the hiatus between mathematics education and work

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Abstract

Preparing students for their lives beyond schooling appears to be a universal goal of formal education. Much has been done to make mathematics education more “realistic,” but such activities nevertheless generally remain within the institutional norms of education. In this article, we assume that pedagogic relations are also an integral part of working life and draw on Bernstein’s work to address their significant features in this context. However, unlike participation in formal mathematics education, where the discipline is central, workers are likely to be confronted by, and need to reconcile, a range of other valued workplace discourses, both epistemic and social/cultural in nature. How might mathematics education work towards overcoming the hiatus between these two very different institutional settings? This article will argue that the skills of recontextualisation, central to teachers’ work, should be integral to the mathematics education of all future workers. It will consider theoretical perspectives on pedagogic discourse and the consequences of diverse knowledge structures at work, with implications for general and vocational mathematics education.

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Notes

  1. PIAAC is an OECD study, similar to PISA, and stands for Project for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (OECD, 2013)

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Acknowledgements

This article is written as part of the research project Adults’ Mathematics: In Work and for School, awarded to Prof. Tine Wedege, Malmö University, and led by Lisa Björklund Boistrup, supported by the Swedish Research Council, 2011–2015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Gail E. FitzSimons

  2. Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lisa Björklund Boistrup

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  1. Gail E. FitzSimons
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  2. Lisa Björklund Boistrup
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Correspondence to Gail E. FitzSimons.

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FitzSimons, G.E., Björklund Boistrup, L. In the workplace mathematics does not announce itself: towards overcoming the hiatus between mathematics education and work. Educ Stud Math 95, 329–349 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-017-9752-9

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