The starting point of the project is the basic conception of mathematics knowledge as situated socially, culturally and technologically that is common in the work of the Centre for Research in Learning Mathematics (1998). (See also Skovsmose, 1994, 1998; Wedege, 2000a; Evans, 2000; FitzSimons, 2002). Problems and analytical categories are elaborated from Lindenskov and Wedege’s research project “Peoples’ Mathematics Knowledge in Changing Technologies” (1998-2002), where didactical concepts and theoretical elements were developed concerning adults’ mathematics knowledge and about mathematics-containing competences and qualifications, i.e. about knowledge and attitudes as the basis and the aim in the learning processes. This is, for example, the case with the term ‘numeracy’ that we have imported and re-constructed as an analytical concept of the mathematics-containing competence in everyday life — numeralitet (defined as the functional mathematical skills and understanding that in principle all people need to have in a given society in a given time). A concept that could also be seen as an attempt at building a bridge between the subjective and objective approach to the issue of the relevance of mathematics (Lindenskov and Wedege, 2000; Wedege, 2001).
In justification of mathematics education, one is often pointing to society’s need for technology and democracy and to the individuals’ needs in every day life and in further education (Blomhøj, 2000; Skovsmose and Valero, 2001; Johansen og Wedege, 2002). In relation to adults, there is a need for investigating what Niss has called the ”relevance paradox” (the contradiction between the objective relevance of mathematics and the subjectively experienced irrelevance) in relation to the different dimensions in the justification problem (Niss, 1994; Jensen, Niss, and Wedege, 1998).
Adults’ learning processes are experienced as a field of tension between knowledge and beliefs, attitudes and emotions. The general theories about learning typically have a main analytical perspective (cognitive, social or affective), but ‘adults learning mathematics’ is under-theorised (FitzSimons and Godden, 2000; Evans, 2000). However, through epistemological reconnaissance, the way is paved to an interdisciplinary theoretical construction as the basis of a social theory about ‘adults learning mathematics (Wedege, 1999, 2000a). This happened via a constructive criticism of Lave and Wenger’s concept of situated learning as legitimate participation in communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991) seen in relation to adults learning mathematics, and a discussion of a possible combination with Bourdieu’s socialisation concept of habitus as the structured and structuring system of incorporated dispositions to mean and to act (Bourdieu, 1980). In formal adult education, the participants are “back in school” with all the attendant beliefs, attitudes and emotions (Illeris, 2000). In relation to “situated learning” and “habitus”, it is therefore natural to study Brousseau’s concept on the contractual relationship in mathematics education (the didactical contract) in relation to the learning of adults (Brousseau, 1986).
Finally, the continuation of my work on qualifications will happen on the basis of the theoretical constructions and clarifications of the Adult Education Research Group at Roskilde University in the “General Qualification Project” (Olesen, 1994; Illeris et al., 1995; Wedege, 2000a).
The existing empirical data from qualitative and quantitative investigations made during the period 1998-2002, will be further worked up to form part of the project. The theoretical investigations and constructions will iterate in continual interplay with further empirical studies. The method using observations, interviews and collection of materials used in the investigation of numeracy in semi-skilled job functions (Wedege, 2000a&b), will be further developed and designed, in order to be used in the study of adults’ mathematics-containing competences and learning in everyday and work, also in unforeseen situations where the daily routine is broken (Perrenoud, 1999). At Adult Education Centres and Adult Vocational Training Centres, students in selected mathematics classes will be observed.
With one point of departure in the interview technique from “mathematical life histories” (Coben, 2000; Wedege, 1999), and on the basis of the results from the Danish “Life History Project” (Andersen et al., 1998), interviews will be conducted with students. Gender will be an explicit dimension throughout the whole project (cf. Evans, 2000; FitzSimons, 2002). In order to see it in its correct perspective, the qualitative data from a limited and heterogeneous sample drawn from a large quantitative data set (Weber, 1999), data from the Danish part of the International Adult Literacy Survey (SIALS) will be statistically collated (Jensen and Holm, 2000). Johansen’s supplementary investigation of the comprehensive data on adult literacy has already given an impression of how rich this material is (Johansen, 2002). In the project, more co-variates will be included and multi-dimensional analyses will be performed, e.g. gender, self-perception, quantitative literacy activity, parents’ and their own educational background. During this work, the theoretical numeracy framework and the preliminary results from the new OECD survey “Adult Literacy and Lifeskills” (ALL) will have the function of a critical corrective (Groenestijn, 2002).
The research project is situated in the Centre for Research in Learning Mathematics, Roskilde University. The project will be carried out through a research network with three key members of the international research forum ALM participating in a working network: Jeff Evans (United Kingdom), Gail FitzSimons (Australia) and Mieke van Groenestijn (The Netherlands). Inge Henningsen, University of Copenhagen, is also co-operating in the collation of the quantitative data for the project .
Regarding the theory and methodology, Tine Wedege will continue the contact with the Adult Education Research Group at Roskilde University. The same goes for Roseanne Benn and Diana Coben (UK) as well as the international network “Mathematics for the Workplace” (Rudolf Strässer - Sweden). Finally, there will be co-operation with selected mathematics teachers in adult education and a series of workplaces.
The research period is 2003-2005. The project is supported financially by the Danish Research Council of Humanities for the first two years. The theory construction and re-construction will iterate in continual interplay with empirical investigations in the project.
Within the network, the primary and daily contact will be done by means of e-mail exchanges. The network will meet at the ALM conferences (Austria in 2003 and Sweden in 2004), and Wedege is planning to visit the respective universities during the project period. Results will be presented at the 10th International Congress on Mathematics Education in Copenhagen, 2004, and in a closing conference in 2005. The written report is, apart from articles in international journals, planned to be an English publication in mathematics education research and a book for Danish educational planners and researchers in adult education.
A practical perspective
The overall purpose of mathematics education research can be described as investigating and forming people’s relationship with mathematics (Blomhøj and Wedege, 2001). The aim of this project is to establish a theoretical framework for a mathematics-containing adult education building on objective societal relevance and subjective relevance to the participants. The normative point of departure will be the difficulties that mathematics in fitting in with (the concerns and constraints of) adults — rather than adults’ difficulties with mathematics (Wedege, 2000a).