Gap gazing or recognising strengths: Rethinking mathematics education

In Australia, New Zealand, and internationally, diverse groups of people including indigenous, migrant, and other minority communities are under-represented in mathematics.

This is accompanied by a narrative or ‘gap story’ that is exacerbated by the methods we use to assess achievement within school systems. A subsequent outcome is a lack of awareness of the rich mathematics and strengths that students from these communities bring to mathematics classrooms.

In this Dean’s Lecture, Professor Hunter will challenge the ‘gap story’ told about minority communities in New Zealand and the Pacific by sharing stories of mathematics collected using visual and narrative methods from children and parents. These stories will highlight what we can learn from the voices of minority communities and how we can rethink mathematics education in the classroom. It will also discuss the importance of diverse learners being positioned to explore their use of mathematics in their lives outside of schooling, and illustrate how this provides students, parents, and educators with opportunities to reconsider mathematics and value the connections between differing knowledge systems.

Lecture Topic: Gap gazing or recognizing strengths: Rethinking mathematics education

Date: Wednesday 08 May 2024

Time: 5.30pm Refreshments | 6.00pm Lecture

Venue: Q230 Theatre. Level 2, 234 Queensberry Street, University of Melbourne

Please note: In the event that this lecture exceeds venue capacity we will require a change of venue within the University of Melbourne, Parkville campus. Keep an eye out for communications.

Dr Jodie Hunter is a Professor in Mathematics Education at the Institute of Education at Massey University, New Zealand.

Previously, she was a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom and a primary school teacher in New Zealand.

Professor Hunter is currently a Rutherford Discovery Fellow and has been a Leverhulme Visting Professor and a Fulbright Scholar. Her research interests and expertise include mathematics education for equity and social justice, early algebra, teacher education, Pacific education, and culturally sustaining pedagogy.

The David Clarke Memorial Lecture as part of the Dean's Lecture Series commemorates Professor Clarke's life and significant contributions to learning and teaching.

Professor David Clarke

Professor David Clarke became a valued member of the Faculty of Education in 1994, dedicating his expertise and passion to the institution until his passing in 2020. He was internationally well known for his establishment and leadership of a substantial, extensive, innovative research programme in video-based classroom research involving more than 20 countries. He founded the International Centre for Classroom Research (ICCR) in 2003, a facility unique in its support of the generation, storage and collaborative analysis of complex classroom data. Under the leadership of Professor Clarke, the ICCR hosted a number of internally and externally funded research projects supporting an extensive international network of researchers.

For most of his educational research career, spanning almost 40 years, Professor Clarke focused on moving the field towards greater, critical self-reflection, and increasingly sophisticated research designs as well as research tools for understanding complex teaching and learning practices in different parts of the world. These lectures honour the life of Professor Clarke and his substantial contribution to the Faculty and the research and education communities around the world.

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