2024 recap

Another year has passed - and as I have not kept my blog up to date, a recap may be in order. 

Teaching

2024 was a copy of 2023, in that I was teaching the same courses: four courses for our mathematics education master students and one course in theory of science and research methods. The mathematics education courses focussed on theories of learning, frameworks for teaching, equity and social justice, and history of mathematics. It's nice - and you always learn something new when you teach.

Publications

I'm proud that we (Rune Herheim, Toril Eskeland Rangnes, Kirsti Rø and myself) managed to finish the book "Master i matematikkdidaktikk" (Master in mathematics education) in time for summer. Some people claim that it has become what was the intention: a valuable resource for master students and master supervisors alike. 

I'm also very proud that Aina Fossum and I succeeded in getting the article "Diversity in Norwegian mathematics examiniations, 1962-2020" published in Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. It was a lot of work (including analysis of 1514 exam tasks), and I think the findings were rather striking. I don't know of other projects that have included so many identity markers and over so long a period.

This is not to say that I'm not proud of the other publications of 2024, of course - every publication has its own story and its own struggles. 

As is always the case, the actual research done in 2024 will become visible as publications in the year(s) to come...

Travels

It's been a busy year - with trips to Iowa City, Copenhagen, and Warsaw (in addition to private holidays to Brighton, Amsterdam and Stockholm, to mention a few). All such travels take a lot of time and energy, and I need to cut down on travels in the future. But they also bring meetings with wonderful people, good memories and sometimes also new perspectives and inspiration for teaching and research. The trip to Iowa City stands out, for the friendliness we were met with and the wonderful people I hope to keep in touch with. Copenhagen (the NORMA conference) and Warsaw (the ICHME conference) were also great. (And I almost forgot the LAMIS conference in Ålesund - that's always nice.)

In 2025, I will go to CERME in Bolzano and ICMT in Trondheim. I hope I will keep it at that...

Diversity in Norwegian mathematics examinations, 1962-2020

Yesterday, the article «Diversity in Norwegian mathematics examinations, 1962-2020» was published in the journal Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. It is open access and written by my colleague Aina Fossum and me. 

As far as I can remember, this project started in the spring of 2020. We got the idea that we could study all the Norwegian national mathematics exams for «grunnskolen» to see how diversity had changed throughout the years. I remember that we sat in an early meeting and discussed - only half jokingly - that we wanted to have a way of analysing the exams that was simple enough to be done on the beach. After all, with the work hours that are typical among researchers, it is not healthy if they all have to be indoors, next to a computer screen.

The findings of the article can of course best be read in the article. The abstract includes this short summary: «Representation in Norwegian examination tasks has improved gradually over the past half century. While representation of girls approached 50% in the 1980s, people with non-stereotypical Scandinavian names or appearances (non-white) were in the single digits until the 2000s. However, it appears that inclusion has been selective, and that some groups are still invisible. There are no clear examples of homosexuality and only two of explicitly disabled people in our material.» The article is unique (as far as I know) in studying many identity markers through a period of almost 60 years, and gives results that are worth pondering for anyone interested in representation in exams and other materials, in my opinion.

Thinking back, it is amazing how many people have had input that has influenced the final article. We have discussed the ideas and later the provisional findings in many different conferences and research groups, and peer reviewers have given a lot of constructive feedback.

I challenge anyone to do similar research in their own country. If such a series of annual exam does not exist, perhaps different series of textbooks could do the trick. It would be very interesting to see how such change has occured in different countries, and which patterns are the same or different. Are there any countries in which disabled people take part in mathematics tasks? Or where there exist both same-sex couples and different-sex couples? And so on.

In the mean time: enjoy the article. It was fun to plan, research and write, but it was a particular pleasure to see it published online…