this paper I explore the meaning of empowerment in the teaching and learning of mathematics. The main part of the paper is devoted to distinguishing three different but complementary meanings of empowerment concerning mathematics: mathematical, social and epistemological empowerment. Mathematical empowerment concerns gaining the power to use mathematical knowledge and skills in school mathematics

Abstract: This paper reports on the results of a study of the epistemologies of seventy research mathematicians utilising a model containing five categories, socio-cultural relatedness, aesthetics, intuition, thinking style and connectivities. The perspectives of the mathematicians demonstrate extreme variability from one to another but certain persistent themes carry important messages for mathematics education. In particular, although mathematicians research very differently, their pervasive absolutist view of mathematical knowledge is not matched by their stories of how they come to know, nor of how they think about mathematics.

With support from the United States Agency for International

This question (what is the philosophy of mathematics education?) provokes a number of reactions, even before one tries to answer it. Is it a philosophy of mathematics education, or is it the philosophy of mathematics education? Use of the preposition ‘a ’ suggests that what is being offered is one of several such perspectives, practices or areas of study. Use of the definite article ‘the ’ suggests to some the arrogation of definitiveness to the account given. 1 In other words, it is the dominant or otherwise unique account of philosophy of mathematics education. However, an alternative reading is that ‘the ’ refers to a definite area of enquiry, a specific domain, within which one account is offered. So the philosophy of mathematics education need not be a dominant interpretation so much as an area of study, an area of investigation, and hence something with this title can be an exploratory assay into this area. This is what I intend here. Moving beyond the first word, there is the more substantive question of the reference of the term ‘philosophy of mathematics education’. There is a narrow sense that can be applied in interpreting the words ‘philosophy ’ and ‘mathematics education’. The philosophy of some area or activity can be understood as its aims or rationale. Mathematics education understood

Abstract: According to many observations, traditional mathematics education falls within the exercise paradigm. This paradigm is contrasted with landscapes of investigation serving as invitations for students to be involved in processes of exploration and explanation. The distinction between the exercise paradigm and landscapes of investigation is combined with a distinction between three different types of reference which might provide mathematical concepts and classroom activities with meaning: references to mathematics; references to a semi-reality; and references to a real-life situation. The six possible learning milieus are illustrated by examples. Moving away from the exercise paradigm and in the direction of landscapes of investigation may help to abandon the authorities of the traditional mathematics classroom and to make students the acting subjects in their learning processes. Moving away from reference to pure mathematics and in the direction of real life references may help to provide resources for reflection on mathematics and its applications. My hope is that finding a route among the different milieus of learning may provide new resources for making the students both acting and reflecting and in this way providing mathematics education with a critical dimension. Kurzreferat: Der traditionelle Mathematikunterricht fällt vielen Beobachtungen nach in das Übungsparadigma. Dieses Paradigma wird den "landscapes of investigation " gegenüber gestellt, einer Einladung an Schüler, sich auf den Prozess des Entdeckens und der Erklärung einzulassen. Übungsparadigma und "landscapes of investigation " werden zusammen mit dem

Whatever the debates about the relation between mathematics and statistics as disciplines, the latter is typically offered within school mathematics curricula. This relatively new inclusion has enhanced the opportunity for learners to experience a greater relevance of mathematics curricula to their own lives, and hence also created the imperative to better understand how best to organise teaching and learning toward such goals. Not surprisingly, teacher education has had to take on such challenges and in so doing brought a focus also on what happens within the halls of tertiary institutions. The question this paper addresses is how best do we prepare teachers to connect mathematics and statistics education to learners ’ own realities. If project work, within a broad social, cultural political approach, is one means for forging such links then there is a need to analyse and better understand the kinds of teacher education pedagogies that may be engaged to build the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes and values among teachers.