CONCEPT STUDY - PROFOUND UNDERSTANDING OF TEACHERS' MATHEMATICS

This workshop was motivated by both current developments in the learning sciences (in particular embodied cognition) and recent shifts of how mathematics knowledge for teachers is conceptualized. We perceived a need for research mathematicians to join with grade-school mathematics educators, working together to interrogate, elaborate, and format the usually tacit associations that are used to give shape to mathematical concepts from elementary to high school. At the same time, we intended to draw deliberately on experts from different language backgrounds, endeavouring to better understand how networks of association within particular languages (including English, Spanish, Blackfoot, Mixe, and Zapoteco) might help or frustrate meaning-making of mathematical concepts. The main goal of this workshop was to gather mathematicians, mathematics educators and teachers to engage in deep cultural and linguistic analysis of mathematical concepts, and the implications for education. A distinctive characteristic of this workshop was the commingling between two languages: Spanish and English. While mathematicians and mathematics educators came from all North America, teachers were mostly from Oaxaca and other parts of Mexico. A professional translation service was provided during the plenary presentations and conversations, and this format enabled direct interaction among indigenous teachers and teacher educators from Mexico with scholars and mathematicians from the US and Canada.