My Social Mission in Maths Education

The purpose of education is very closely linked to the purpose of life and that is to keep growing in all aspects of personality in order to maximize our potential at multiple levels. For this, it would be necessary to build right from childhood skills and attitudes that help the learners stay lifelong learners in their lives. Lifelong Learning “…serves to reject the school and post-school division to endorse learningacross the lifespan, a learning which is worthwhile to the individual citizen and, therefore to the society of which she is a part”, (Field & Leicester, 2001, pp.18).

Keeping this as the vision, when I looked at my classroom for maths at the beginning of my career, I found at least half the students were filled with fear of maths. Maths phobia “…may be defined as a feeling of anxiety that stops one from efficiently tackling mathematical problems”. This looked to be a contradiction of the true aim of life and completely unaligned with it.

There are several reasons for maths phobia, such as (a) the structure of maths, (b) the way of teaching, and (c) the place accorded to maths in our society. But if we “…help them develop a GROWTH mind-set – that by working at it they WILL learn the material and their brains WILL grow…”, we canhelp the students to overcome the phobia”.

Need for Systems Change

The systemic change that is needed is at two levels. One is the development of teachers so they follow a deeply inquiring and reflective practice. Teachers need to keep questioning the purpose of education and reflect if their classroom projects the purpose. Teachers need to be taught to be clear on the aim and alignment of education around the aim.

The most common reason for individuals to enter teaching is “to make a difference in the lives of students”. However, their interest starts dropping as “the inevitable difficulties of teaching ... interact with personal issues and vulnerabilities, as well as social pressure and values, to engender a sense of frustration and force a reassessment of the possibilities of the job and the investment one wants to make in it”, (Fullan). The need is for the teacher education program to teach the teachers to “… combine the mantle of moral purpose with the skills of change agentry” (Fullan).

The other development is of maths curriculum with a perspective of the development of faculties needed to a mind-set of global citizenship for the students. That is “…ways of thinking and living within multiple cross-cutting communities—cities, regions, states, nations, and international collectives…".

Working on the Work

I have been working as a change agent for more than 2 decades. My mission is the development of learning environments where maths can be learned without fear. I have learned and grown as an educator in my attempts to create inclusive learning spaces. “Developing and engaging and positivelearning environment for learners, especially in a particular course, is one of the most creative aspects of teaching”.

I discovered that such a learning environment has some components that are, (a) integration of life skills, (b) building perspective, (c) making maths emotionally positive, and (d) complete acceptance of the learners. My working space has changed but not the work.

I created a learning environment that was healing spaces for students who feared maths and invigorating to those who wanted to grow. For example, developing a self-learning program mapped onto the local curriculum at The Valley school. Integrating Multiple Intelligence with maths at The Pathways IB school. Bringing students to loving maths by integrating art, music, and drama in the maths curriculum throughout.

I learned to work in collaboration with colleagues to develop innovative programs in maths in all schools that I worked in. I shared my knowledge and expertise freely with all and realized that synergistic relationships are best for mutual learning and growth.

I learned to work in harmony with parents for I believe “…that teacher attitudes about parents and teacher invitations to involvement play a significant role in parents’ decisions to become involved”, (Hoover et al.). I challenged their traditional assumptions about marks and facilitated new thoughts where learning was more important than grades.

An Academic entrepreneur

Conclusion

Learning needs to be seen as a social experiment towards a better global existence. The question at the heart needs to be, ‘How can we educate, so we live better?’ This would lead to questions that are reflective in nature. I am constantly ready to work with any agency that I can in order to improve the work of maths education in such a way that a global mindset has space to be created in the learners of maths.  This is such a gift!

About the author

Monica Kochar started her career as a Maths teacher in 1993. She has years of experience as a Maths Curriculum Designer with leading education platforms. This write-up has been reproduced from ' Humane Maths ' with the Author's consent. Any views expressed are personal.