Citizenship Education in the Context of School Mathematics

From Elaine Simmt's paper, we take a look at what mathematics education has in correlation to civics educations.

In truth, I originally thought that school mathematics had little relationship with citizenship. Furthermore, through my high school life (up until Grade 10 at least), I had grown up with the understanding that:

1. Mathematics is a "set of facts, skills and processes".
2. Mathematics are facts and fact.
3. Mathematics is either right or wrong.

These are three of the instructional stances and strategies in mathematics that may conflict with citizenship education according to Simmt. I believe that depending on the teacher, the students' insight and use of mathematics could be greatly affected. By teaching in a way where the instructors look for the "right" answer and look for a specific computational skill and algorithm, students ay lose sight of the fact that mathematics is seen all around society. But training our students into looking for information and "stripping from word problems" the facts, word problems are not serving their purpose. They are merely simple math questions in disguise and students lose sight that mathematics and citizenship are integrated with one another- especially in today's world. By asking closed questions, the impression that mathematics is either right or wrong is given to students. Do we as teacher candidates want our students to think close mindedly? By asking questions that are either right or wrong, our students grow to learn not to question the results of mathematics and not think on a higher level of the Bloom's taxonomy.

In order to prevent this from happening, Simmt offers suggestions that promote active and critical participation in society. These include:

1. Variable-entry prompts and investigations: problem posing.
Problem posing is a difficult concept to grasp- however, it is filled with benefits. By giving very open ended questions where the students can construe their own understanding, their knowledge on the individual level becomes more solid. As wll, the students will need to "pose, negotiate, and judge the appropriateness and adequacy of their own and classmates' questions and solutions". By doing so, students not only work on their mathematical skills, but also develop skills in taking an active and critical participation in society that is expected of citizens.

2. The Demand for Explanation
By helping students reazlie that math is not merely about the RIGHT answer but about the "truth" and having them realize that there are multiple truths as long as it is backed up by explanation- their skills in articulating thoughts and assertions are built. By having my students explain their reasoning, I would furthermore be able to teach my students via construetivism. I believe that in this way, we would be able to educate for citizenship with independent and individual thinking.

3. Mathematical Conversations
Through discussing with their peers and teachers, students can perhaps develop the ability to solve concepts and problems through communication. By having interaction with one another, this would help them realize that the skills developed in mathematics is applicable in society as well.

From Simmt's paper, I have realized the importance of not only helping students learn mathematics in terms of "general numeracy" but also as a subject that the power to change society. Hence, though we may not realize it immediately, mathematics plays a great role in citizenship education as it helps us understand society AND develops active and critical individuals.