National Adaptation Of New Math As A Cold War ‘Globally’-disseminated Idea In Luxembourg: Confrontation Of National Values And International Urges

Author(s):

Shaghayegh Nadimi Amiri(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

17. Histories of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

17 SES 03, The Discourse Construction of Education

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-08

17:15-18:45

Room:

427.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Angelo Van Gorp

Contribution

After the end of the World War II, almost all western countries started reforming their education system, specially maths and science education, as a result of their wartime experience and the new economic and security needs. This trend has been accelerated after the launch of Sputnik satellite by the USSR in October 1957. One of the main subject that has been reformed vigorously was school mathematics, specifically under the name of the New Math reform, created by SMSG (School Mathematics Study Group) in 1958. The New Math reform was a means to modernise not just the school maths education but also the idea of why students should learn mathematics.

The beginning of the New Math reform movement in Europe is originated in a so-called Royaumont seminar with the official title of “New thinking in school mathematics”. The seminar was held in Paris, between 23rd of November and 4th of December 1959. This seminar triggered many reforms and changes in school mathematics during 1960s and 1970s in Europe including Luxembourg.

This paper is a part of my Ph.D. project under the main title “Travelling ideologies and national adaptations: The implementation of New Math in Luxembourgian school system during 1960s-1970s”. The main focus of the project is to see how the New Math was adapted for Luxembourgian schools in order to reveal how a ‘globally’-disseminated idea about how mathematics is connected to the ideology of the rational and critical citizen has been implemented in this country by translating it into its cultural idiosyncrasy. During the 1960s and 1970s there were many attempts by Luxembourg mathematicians at adapting conceptions of the new mathematics to make them applicable first for the secondary and later for the primary levels. However, the development of my study showed that the New Math reform, unlike in the U.S. or in France, did not have a sharp starting point in Luxembourg, but it was part of a smooth transitional movements that started around 1900 when the country was trying to define its national identity. Therefore, this presentation starts with a brief review of the changes in school mathematics since 1900 up to the end of 1970s when the New Math officially was introduced in the primary level, and studies the arguments and discussion with regard to mathematics education with a focus on the discussion around the era that Royaumont seminar was taking place and after that. The importance of the Royaumont seminar is that from then, the international efforts came to the playfield through OEEC/OECD and intervened in the national demarche. Accordingly the main questions that lead this presentation are: How was the meaning and purpose of mathematics education changing in Luxembourg during the first 70 years of twentieth century? Where did different people or groups in Luxembourg placed mathematics in their expected education at the time when the New Maths movement started in Europe in 1959? Finally, how did OECD influence the development of adapting this suggesting ideology related to education, and how did different people and groups react or collaborate?

Method

The paper, will chronically reviews changes in the education of mathematics in Luxembourgian schools, and will analyse arguments, opinions and discussion regarding to mathematics education, specifically after the New Math movement triggered in Europe. It starts by a brief review of the general opinion about mathematics and its importance in the education of the future citizen in Luxembourg. My study shows that since the end of the WWII, there were discussions among school stakeholders related to mathematics education. According to my research, they felt that they are “urgently in need for a reform” as it is described in an article published in Febraury 1959 in d’Letzebuerger Land. The article argues that none of their “neighboring countries in the development of the school curriculum is as far back as Luxembourg”, and this disadvantage which is more specifically related to the mathematics and sciences is shown when Luxembourgish students attend a university in one of these countries. This article also suggests picking some school textbooks from one of the neighbour countries in order to be at least in their level [1]. Furthermore, the presentation is continued by looking at first reactions to the Royaumont seminar as it was considered as part of “Die Amerikanisierung Europas” [2] in Luxembourg and how these discussions alongside with communication and collaboration with OEEC/OECD going on until 1970 when the New Math was formally introduced into the primary school textbooks. Since the start of the New Math movement in Europe, these discussions became more critical and was influenced by the Americo-European movements through OECD. The research data is drawn from relevant archival records including reports, correspondences, teachers’ journals, local newspaper articles, texts of laws, non-official and official relevant school-books of the era in Luxembourg, the publication of Centre belge de pédagogie de la mathématique of the era as the Luxembourgian maths educators were collaborating with this centre, and publication of OEEC/OECD, specifically, the report of the Royaumont seminar published in 1961. Alongside, the research has a look at the handbooks of the new mathematics concepts suggested in the U.S. and their accompanied justification documents, in order to have a comparison about how, in one hand the suggested concepts, and the other hand the ideology of the New Math reform, were adapted to serve values and expectations in Luxembourg.

Expected Outcomes

This presentation shows challenges that Luxembourgian school stakeholders confronted to adapt a ‘globally’-disseminated idea, although they found it beneficial and despite the tendency of going along with the policy of OEEC/OECD and other European countries. Ten years after the beginning of the New Math movement in Europe, we can see the trace of these new mathematical concepts in the official textbooks in the secondary school, and it took ten more years to be introduced in the primary level. This happened much earlier in the neighbouring countries. During 1960s and 1970s, there was a huge attempt by mathematicians and mathematics teachers in the country to adapt these new concepts for the school textbooks. For instance several suggesting textbooks was printed and some of them was used moderately in some chosen schools of the country. We will see that besides the restriction that multilingualism made for preparing textbooks, moral and religious values also played their tremendous roles. The overview of the 70 years maths related discussions shows that Luxembourgian educational-policy makers had to always go through many delicate and time-taking dialogues with people and church, in order to justify a new educational idea based on both national and catholic values. This presentation shows an example of how a certain OEEC/OECD policy works in a country, as we will see that in one hand, Luxembourg had a tight cooperation with OEEC/OECD, and in the other hand, there was the local culture and beliefs about the role of mathematics and the expectation from the future citizens. The confrontation of these two factors caused that although they felt an urgent need to change, even after all other neighbour countries implemented New Math, they were still hesitating as they needed to think about what could fit in their cultural need and exigences.

References

[1] d’Letzebuerger Land. Luxembourg. (1959.02.13). p12. [2] Luxemburger Wort. Luxembourg: Saint-Paul. (27.11.1959). Fehr, H. (1961). New thinking in school mathematics (1st ed.). Paris: OEEC. Some resources used for this study: ANLux MEN 1157 File no. 1157 (Dossier: Chroniques, horaires et programmes, 1946–1951) ANLux MEN 1158 File no. 1158 (Dossier: Chroniques, horaires et programmes, 1947–1967) Administration cantonale [Luxembourg] (1901): Lehrplan für die Primärschulen im Canton Luxemburg, 1901. Luxembourg: Administration cantonale. Frieden, P. (1944). Cahier du redressement. Série B/ / publ. par P. Frieden. Frieden, P. (1956). L’Europe par l’éducation. Les Cahiers du Bulletin européen. Mars-Avril 1956. Online sources School Mathematics Study group (SMSG) Online Library: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=School%20Mathematics%20Study%20Group

Author Information

Shaghayegh Nadimi Amiri (presenting / submitting)

University of Luxembourg

Luxembourg

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