From the Desk of Mercy Kazima, Member-at-Large of ICMI EC 2021-2024

I am delighted and honored to serve as member-at-large in the ICMI EC (2021-2024). My interest in ICMI started the first time I learnt about it - it was in 2004 during my post-doc research fellowship at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. My post-doc host was Jill Adler who at the time was the Vice President of ICMI (2003-2006). Among other things, I learnt from her about ICMI, its objectives and activities. During that time, I had the chance to meet the other Vice President of ICMI, Michèle Artigue (France) who visited the University of the Witwatersrand and gave an inspiring presentation. I participated in organizing the first ICMI regional congress in Africa which was held in 2005 at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. My interest grew even more after my first experience and participation in ICME 11 in 2008 in Monterrey, Mexico. I was very excited about ICMI and its activities and I wondered why I only got to know about it in 2004. This is what drives me to join others in publicizing ICMI in Africa and encouraging participation of Africa in ICMI activities, as one of the objectives of ICMI is to promote mathematical education around the world.

As a new member at large in the EC, I am delighted to be part of, and to work with, a group of experienced scholars who are passionate and dedicated to achieving the goals of ICMI. It is a lot of work but it is exciting and interesting work. The first year has been wonderful although we have met only virtually. I look forward to the day that a face-to-face meeting will be possible and I get to meet everybody in the EC and know them better. Hopefully this will happen before the end of our term!
One of my responsibilities is being the ICMI EC liaison person for Africa ICME congress (AFRICME). This is a responsibility that I take on with a lot of pride and enthusiasm, as my other responsibilities. As I reported in the November 2021 newsletter, AFRICME 6 took place in October 2021 as a virtual conference hosted by the University of Rwanda. It was a successful conference and one of its highlights was a plenary discussion of the future of AFRICME. This discussion was important because it is becoming increasingly difficult to hold the conferences. One of the main reasons is that there is no governing structure to oversee the conferences. During the discussion it was agreed to establish an Africa ICMI Association (AFRICMA) which will govern the AFRICME conferences, CANP4 and other ICMI activities in the region. A general proposal of a structure was accepted and a group of people were nominated to take up the task of establishing the association. So far, the group has met virtually twice. The first meeting was on 1st December 2021, during which it was agreed to have the secretariat at Kenyatta University in Kenya and office bearers were nominated. The second meeting was on 24th January 2022, and it focused on terms of reference for the office bearers and sharing tasks in developing a constitution for the association. The third meeting is planned for April 2022 and will focus on the draft constitution.

AFRICMA executive committee
President: Mary Ochieng (Kenya)
Vice President: Nkosinathi Mpalami (Lesotho/South Africa)
Secretary: Moneoang Leshota (Lesotho/South Africa)
Vice Secretary: Angel Mukuka (Zambia)
Treasurer: Marguerite Miheso-O’Connor (Kenya)
Vice Treasurer: Marjorie Batiibwe (Uganda)

Committee members
Mariam Makramalla (Egypt)
Kassa Micheal (Ethiopia)
Alphonse Uworwabayeho (Rwanda)
Benita Nel (South Africa)
Veronica Sarungi (Tanzania)
Fredrick Mtenzi (Tanzania)

In the initial meetings, Jill Adler (the past ICMI president), Anjum Halai (the current ICMI Vice President) and I (the ICMI EC liaison person) attend to support the group. We eagerly look forward to the establishment of AFRICMA soon.

Launch of ICME-15 - The Future of Global Mathematics Education is in our Hands   

Date: Monday 14 March 2022
Time: 4.00-5.30 pm (AEDT time; 0500-0630 UTC)
Venue: Virtual, by Zoom

We’re excited to announce the launch of the 15th International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME-15).

Join us as we share our aspirations and our vision for the journey ahead at this special event on Monday 14 March, the International Day of Mathematics.

ICME-15 will bring together our highly-engaged mathematics community including mathematics educators, mathematicians, researchers, teachers and resource producers from around the world for an eight-day congress on mathematics education in Sydney in 2024.

Australia’s then Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel AO said in 2019 that the congress was very timely for Australia. “At all levels of government, it is well understood that a workforce skilled in mathematics is critical to our future. Hosting events such as this will help to elevate the ambition of students and educators,” Dr Finkel said.

ICME-15 Bid Leader and ICME-15 Convenor Professor Kim Beswick, Head of School of Education, University of New South Wales, said the future of global mathematics education is in “our hands and we offer our full commitment to help to make an impact on this critical issue. Together, we can achieve great things”.

We hope you will join others from around the world to be the first to learn something about what to expect at ICME-15 in two years time. We are excited – you will be too!

To register please visit the official ICME-15 website.

By Hans-Georg Weigand - Universität Würzburg, Germany

The Klein Project is an IMU/ICMI project with the aim of producing mathematics resources for secondary teachers on contemporary mathematics. It was inspired by Felix Klein’s book Elementary Mathematics from a Higher Standpoint, first published more than 100 years ago. A new edition of the three volumes appeared in 2016. It is intended as a stimulus for mathematics teachers, to help them to make connections between the mathematics they teach, or can be asked to teach, and the field of mathematics, while taking into account the evolution of this field over the last century. See also the book The Legacy of Felix Klein (2019, Springer)

We would like to transfer Felix Klein's idea into the present time.

In 2008 a Klein Design Group was established to plan to produce “vignettes” – short, readable pieces on a topic of contemporary mathematics. A (classical) Klein Vignette is a short piece of writing about a single mathematical topic. It assumes the reader has some undergraduate mathematical knowledge, and at least a willingness to engage with mathematical writing. Klein Vignettes are not just “about” mathematics, they contain significant mathematics which is likely to be new to most secondary teachers.
Examples of Klein Vignettes:

• How Google works: Markov Chains and Eigenvalues
• Goodstein Sequences: The Power of a Detour via Infinity
• Banach’s Microscope to find a Fixed Point
• From Synthetic Geometry to Dynamic Geometry and back: the Case of Circular Inversion

A Klein Bridging-Vignette bridges the gap between the mathematics explained in a classical vignette and its use in the classroom.
We especially invite interested mathematics educators to write Bridging-Vignettes for the Klein Project.
Authors of vignettes are mathematicians, mathematics educators from universities and mathematics teachers.
The Klein Vignettes are available in English, and many have been translated into Arabic, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Khmer and Mandarin. For examples of Vignettes, take a look at the Klein Project Blog.

Activities of the Klein Project
Like in many other fields, the COVID situation stopped in-person activities of the Klein Project in the last two years. There have been some virtual workshops for teachers’ professional development in Italy, France and Brazil, and there was a (virtual) Klein Project Workshop – Vignettes in Practice – at ICME-14 in Shanghai in July 2021. On top of that, there is an ongoing collaboration with other projects like the Snapshots Project in Israel, the French project “Image des maths” or the project "Mathematical Licei" in Italy.
We are looking for cooperation with other projects and colleagues to move the Klein Project ahead after the pandemic situation, to implement planned projects and to launch new projects. We would like to integrate new people into the project team and to motivate others to contribute to the project by writing or translating new vignettes. One main emphasis will be the presentation of contemporary mathematics in classroom situations (Bridging Vignettes), and we want to give examples for this transfer.

The Klein Webpage: A Klein-Project-webpage is on the ICMI website. Patricio Felmer Aichele from the ICMI-EC is the liaison person for the Klein Project.

The present Klein Design Team:
Hans-Georg Weigand (Germany), Michèle Artigue (France), Ferdinando Arzarello (Italy), Yuriko Baldin (Brazil), Bill McCallum (Arizona, USA), and Samuel Bengmark (Sweden).  

One of the aims of the International Day of Mathematics (IDM) is to convey the love of mathematics to young people and the messages that mathematics is everywhere and that it is useful and beautiful.

The theme chosen for IDM 2022 is: Mathematics Unites

The goal is that, in addition to large public events, all teachers celebrate IDM in their classroom. Schools can also organize larger events.

Here are some suggestions:

• Discussion of the Mathematics Unites theme and what it could mean.
• One way Mathematics Unites is that there is a universal mathematical language. As an illustration, proofs without words is proposed in classroom activities.
• Participation in the MATHEMATICS UNITES Photo Challenge. The participants are invited to take a picture of themselves with a mathematical object.  The deadline for sending photos is March 1, 2022, and the best photos will be posted in a gallery.
• All celebrations registered on the IDM website will appear on the IDM event map 2022. Pre-announcements are encouraged and can be edited later.
• The logo already exists in 23 languages and more will be added as and when requested.
• An IDM 2022 poster will be available. Schools can also produce their own poster with their students.
• Participation in the live coverage of March 14 (similar to the live coverage in 2021).
• Visiting the IDM website and sharing photos or videos of local IDM activities on the IDM website and on social networks.
• Material is proposed on the website in several languages for organizing events outside the classroom.
• The 2022 Global Online Celebration Live Stream of March 14 will feature five one-hour celebrations in Arabic, Portuguese, English, French and Spanish, each consisting of four ten-minute talks.
• Subscribe to the IDM newsletter to receive all the information about IDM 2022 and further IDMs.

The IDM Governing Board is looking for IDM Ambassadors in all countries of the world to help increase celebration of the IDM! If you are interested to become an IDM Ambassador, please contact: info@idm314.org. IDM Ambassadors will be acknowledged on the IDM website.

We need your help to invite schools around the world to celebrate!

It suffices to forward the following invitation letters to the school networks of your country:
Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.

Contact: Christiane Rousseau via email: info@idm314.org

Once upon a Time…  Historical Vignettes from the Archives of ICMI:
The Aarhus ICMI-seminar on the teaching of geometry

Bernard R. Hodgson,
Curator of the ICMI Archive

A perpetual challenge, for any organization supported by an archive, is to ensure that as many documents as possible, pertaining to its mission, are collected and duly preserved for the benefit of posterity.  Sometimes a longed-for “gold nugget” will be found after a patient and systematic search, and at other times it will simply be encountered serendipitously. I want in this vignette to report on a recent “success story” of the latter kind related to the ICMI Archive.

My former colleague Claude Gaulin (1938-2020), from the Faculty of Education of Université Laval, was a long-time devotee (and “Old Hand”—see ^[1]) of ICMI. A few months after a small-scale (and friendly) scientific gathering organized at Université Laval on the occasion of his 80th birthday ^[2], I had the good fortune of visiting Claude in his house, where he had invited me to have a look at the hundreds of books accumulated in his basement—he was aware, in relation to my duties as the ICMI Archive Curator, of my deep interest for ICMI-related documents. I had the strong feeling that he would have some “ICMI treasures”…

What a shock it was for me!  I don’t think I had ever seen so many mathematics and math education books and journals belonging to a personal collection. Even books from his days as an undergraduate and graduate math student, as well as numerous books from the 1960s and 70s, in the early days of Claude’s migration to the world of didactique des mathématiques. Not to speak of the scores of boxes piled up on the floor which had been packed with personal notes and documents of all kinds at the time of his retirement, when he had to empty numerous filing cabinets at his university office.

Claude had generously allowed me to search at my will into his math education collection for documents of interest from an ICMI perspective. (We had quickly agreed that it was not part of my task to dig into his boxes of personal notes.) Over a period of a few weeks, a few hours each time, I visited him on four occasions and came out with some fifty items now deposited in the ICMI Archive. A very rich crop indeed, from an ICMI Archive perspective.  But for me, in addition, what beautiful moments I did spend with Claude! He was obviously pleased to witness my deep interest for these documents, and eager to add personal memories about people, places or events connected to almost each of them.

I must add that only a few months after my exploration into Claude’s collection, a serious water infiltration occurred in the basement of his house, damaging a large quantity of books and other paper documents. And slightly later, Claude quite sadly began being significantly afflicted by illness.

The gold nugget that I wish to present in this vignette is the proceedings ^[3] of an ICMI sponsored seminar organized at the University of Aarhus on May 30 to June 2, 1960. In some way, a small gathering, with 30 participants from 10 European countries. But still a rich testimony both about trends of the time related to the “elementary teaching of geometry” [4, p. 140] and about foremost contributors to such reflections. It was from Mogens Niss, my predecessor as ICMI Secretary General, that I first learned of this event and of its importance in connection to the mathematics / mathematics education relationship in the New Math era. I was thus really excited when I discovered that document in the basement of Claude Gaulin’s home. It is now available online via the Digital Library page of the ICMI website.

In a memorandum note to the members of the Organizing Committee he was thereby appointing, ICMI President Marshall H. Stone crystallized the “purpose” of the Aarhus meeting as aiming “to advance the study of the three topics which are to be taken up” ^[5] during special meetings organized by ICMI and connected to the education section of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), to be held in Stockholm in 1962 [6, p. xxxvi].

These three topics had been identified earlier by the 1959-1962 ICMI Executive Committee [7, p. 285] as:
•    Which subjects in modern mathematics and which applications of modern mathematics can find place in programmes of secondary school instruction? (Rapporteur: John G. Kemeny)
•    Connections between arithmetic and algebra in the mathematical instruction of children up to the age of 15. (Rapporteur: Stefan Straszewicz)
•    Education of the teachers for the various levels of mathematical instruction. (Rapporteur: Kay Piene)
These themes were partly rooted in recommendations [8, pp. 218-219] from the previous ICMI EC, with Heinrich Behnke as President—and Vice-President on the new ICMI EC. (Reports on the first two topics have appeared in L’Enseignement Mathématique 10 (1964), pp. 152-176 and 271-293.)
 
The Organizing Committee of the Aarhus ICMI-seminar, chaired by Svend Bundgaard and composed, in addition to Behnke and the three rapporteurs mentioned above, of Ole Rindung and Willy Servais, promptly “decided to concentrate most of the lectures and discussions on Modern Teaching of Geometry in secondary schools with particular emphasis on ways of treatment opened up by developments lately, in particular by the algebraization of mathematics” [3, p. ii]. (It is also mentioned in the Preface of [3] that some of the sessions in Aarhus were devoted to the three topics of the 1962 ICM, but with no report on these therein.)
 
Seven mathematicians—who, in addition to a deep expertise in geometry, had connections (of various kinds) to mathematical education—presented the lectures published in the Aarhus Proceedings:
•    Heinrich Behnke, Felix Klein und die heutige Mathematik;
•    Günter Pickert, Axiomatik im Geometrieunterricht;
•    Jean Dieudonné, The introduction of angles in geometry;
•    Gustave Choquet, Recherche d’une axiomatique commode pour le premier enseignement de la géométrie élémentaire;
•    Werner Fenchel, On the relation between synthetic and analytic geometry in secondary schools;
•    György Hajós, Über die Genauigkeit im Geometrieunterricht;
•    Hans Freudenthal, Logik als Gegenstand und als Methode.
In spite of dating back to more than six decades, these lectures are per se still worth being read.
 
I will concentrate here on three protagonists with an importance of their own who took part in this event: Gustave Choquet (1915-2006), Jean Dieudonné (1906-1992) and Hans Freudenthal (1905-1990).[1]

Both Choquet and Dieudonné are recognized as outstanding and prolific mathematicians of their generation. Their connection to the ICMI-seminar was directly related to their long-time involvement in geometry, which was evidenced in particular when they each published a landmark book on this topic in 1964: Choquet’s L’enseignement de la géométrie ^[9] and Dieudonné’s Algèbre linéaire et géométrie élémentaire ^[10]. Freudenthal was then also seen as a respected research mathematician, in particular in relation to his results from the late 1930s on the homotopy groups of spheres and the so-called “Freudenthal suspension theorem”. It may be noted that at the time of the Aarhus event, he was still active as a researcher in mathematics, as shown by his short communication related to Lie algebras presented at the 1962 ICM [11, p. 30]. But already at the time of the Aarhus seminar, Freudenthal had started his earnest and exceptional involvement in mathematical education. He had previously served as a rapporteur on the topic of geometry for one of the ICMI special meetings at the 1958 ICM in Edinburgh ^[12]. His deep and original reflections on the teaching and learning of mathematics, combined with his energetic character, would soon bring him to play many pivotal roles in the field of didactics of mathematics, including as a member of the ICMI Executive Committee (1963-1966) and ICMI President (1967-1970), and as the initiator of both the journal Educational Studies in Mathematics in 1968 and the series of International Congresses on Mathematical Education (ICMEs) in 1969.

A specific interest of the Aarhus seminar stems from the (brief) reports, published in the Proceedings, on the discussions that followed the various lectures. Discussions which sometimes may have been quite animated, as can be seen from a comment by the discussion rapporteur, after Pickert’s lecture on axiomatics in geometry, where it is noted that: “Apparently the heat of the discussion came from mutual misunderstandings as nobody wanted to teach the pupils to construct silly axiomatics systems and prove silly theorems” [3, p. 33]. Or in the summary of the discussion after Dieudonné’s lecture on angles: “Here followed a rather heated discussion about the sum of the angles in a pentagon” [ibid., p. 45].

From the discussion after the lecture by Pickert, one reads that Dieudonné observed: “Pickert made a too strong distinction between algebra and geometry. It would be better to use algebra and the properties of the real numbers from the very beginning of the teaching of geometry” [ibid., p. 31]. In reaction to Freudenthal’s remark: “The most important part of the pupils are those who are not going to study mathematics later on”, Choquet replies: “We can’t distinguish between two kinds of mathematics. What is taught from the age of 15 should be mathematics (i.e. correct deductions etc.) and it isn’t important whether it is called axiomatics or not” [ibid., p. 32].

An interesting part of the debates at the Aarhus seminar is related to a certain tension between didactical considerations, including psychological or pedagogical ingredients, as opposed to an intrinsically mathematical standpoint. This is seen for instance in different interactions between Freudenthal and Dieudonné. On one occasion, after the lecture by the latter on angles, Freudenthal comments: “It is dangerous with too radical changes. We don’t obtain anything by introducing too much too early without thinking about the psychological and pedagogical problems.” To which Dieudonné’s reaction is: “There are many psychological difficulties; but we don’t get anywhere if we are too cautious. There must come a change” [ibid., p. 46].

In the same vein, after Choquet’s lecture proposing in a great many details “a convenient axiomatics for the first teaching of elementary geometry”, Freudenthal notes that “we cannot teach the pupils everything. There are certain psychological and pedagogical principles which mustn’t be violated”, pointing in particular to Choquet’s suggestion of introducing an order relation axiomatically, which Freudenthal considers as too difficult for the pupils. To which Dieudonné retorts: “The important thing is to teach the students some good mathematics. The psychological considerations are of secondary importance.” In order to make Dieudonné’s point clear, the rapporteur even adds his comment verbatim in French: “La psychologie, je m’en fiche.”—that is, “Psychology, I don’t give a damn.” [ibid., p. 104] After another lecture, to Freudenthal’s comment: “We could teach everything, drive the children in any direction. But there exist other things at school. We must see the whole together”, Dieudonné ripostes: “No. We are here to discuss mathematics and nothing else.” [ibid., p. 127] Those who have known Dieudonné and Freudenthal, and are familiar with their physical and moral statures, can easily imagine each of them making his case…

The Aarhus ICMI-Seminar was considered in many ways to be a real success.  The final word possibly belongs to Heinrich Behnke, who in his capacity as Vice-President of ICMI presided over the meeting, at the request of Stone ^[5]. In a letter to IMU Secretary Beno Eckmann, only a few days after the symposium, Behnke wrote:
“Vielen Dank für Ihr Schreiben vom 4. Jüni, das ich gerade bei meiner Rückkehr von dem ICMI-Seminar in Aarhus erhalte. Ich war von dieser Tagung sehr angetan, die vor allem in der scharfen und langen Diskussion zwischen Dieudonné und Freudenthal ihren Höhepunkt fand. Es hat sich wirklich gelohnt. Ein europäischer Vorschlag für den Unterricht auf den Oberklassen ist im Werden. (Wir haben sogar den Plan besprochen, ein deutsch-französisches Lehrbuch herauszugeben.) Selten habe ich ein Seminar mitgemacht, welches insgesamt so harmonisch verlief.” ^[13]
English translation:
“Thank you for your letter of 4 June, which I just received on my return from the ICMI seminar in Aarhus. I was very impressed by this conference, the pinnacle of which was above all the lively and long discussion between Dieudonné and Freudenthal. It really was very worthwhile. A European proposal for teaching at the upper-secondary level is in progress. (We even discussed the plan to publish a German-French textbook.) Rarely have I participated in a seminar that went so smoothly overall.”

NB: Further information on events surrounding the ICMI-seminar held in Aarhus can be found on the History of ICMI website ^[14], edited by Fulvia Furinghetti and Livia Giacardi. See especially the detailed analysis of the time spans 1955-1959 and 1960-1966, accessible under the Timeline browser tab.

^{[1] Photo credits. Gustave Choquet: photo ID 667, MFO, Oberwolfach. Jean Dieudonné: photo ID 847, MFO, Oberwolfach. Hans Freudenthal: Hofland, L.H., fotograaf; Auteursrechthouder: Het Utrechts Archief, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.}

^{Sources
[1]  Dionne, J.J., & Hodgson, B.R. (2020). Claude Gaulin (1938-2020)—In memoriam.  ICMI News (July 2020) pp. 15-16.  [www.mathunion.org/icmi/publications/icmi-newsletter/icmi-newsletter-archive]
[2]  Grossi, E.P. (Ed.). (2018). Homenagem Claude Gaulin. Porto Alegre (Brasil): GEEMPA.
[3]  Bundgaard, S. (1960). Lectures on modern teaching of geometry and related topics. (ICMI-Seminar, Elementær Afdeling Nr. 7), Aarhus (Denmark) : Aarhus Universitet.
[www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/ICMI/Digital%20Library/ICMISeminar_AarhusUniversitet_1960.pdf]
[4]  ICMI (1960).  Compte rendu de la réunion de la C.I.E.M (Belgrade, 21 septembre 1960).  L’Enseignement Mathématique 6, pp. 140-141. (Translated from the French)
[5]  Stone. M.H. (1960). Memorandum to H. Behnke, S. Bundgaard et al., 1 March. IMU Archive/ SF 1 / Ser 14: ICMI 1952-1966.  [Box 14A]
[6]  IMU (1963). Secretary’s report. In: Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians 1962, pp. xxxiv-xxxvii. Djursholm (Sweden): Institut Mittag-Lefler.
[www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/ICM/Proceedings/ICM1962.1/ICM1962.1.ocr.pdf]
[7]  ICMI (1959). Rapport de la réunion de la C.I.E.M (Paris, 7-8 décembre 1959). L’Enseignement Mathématique 5, pp. 284-287. (English translation from the 1962 ICM Programme [11], pp. 29, 38, 53)
[8]  Behnke, H., & Desforge, J. (1958). Lettre-circulaire du Bureau de la C.I.E.M. aux dirigeants des Sous-commissions nationales (28 juin 1958). L’Enseignement Mathématique 4, pp. 213-219.
[9]  Choquet, G. (1964). L’enseignement de la géométrie.  Paris: Hermann.
[10]  Dieudonné, J. (1964). Algèbre linéaire et géométrie élémentaire. Paris : Hermann.
[11]  IMU (1962). Programme of the International Congress of Mathematicians 1962. Stockholm.
[www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/ICM/Proceedings/ICM1962.p/ICM1962.p.ocr.pdf]
[12]  Freudenthal, H. (1959). A comparative study of methods of initiation into geometry. L’Enseignement Mathématique 5, pp. 119-139.
[13]  Behnke, H. (1960). Letter to Beno Eckmann, IMU Secretary, 7 June. IMU Archive/ SF 1 / Ser 14: ICMI 1952-1966.  [Box 14A]
[14]  Furinghetti, F., & Giacardi, L, (Eds.). The first century of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (1908-2008).  [www.icmihistory.unito.it]}

Mathematics for Action: Supporting Science-Based Decision Making (MfA) is a tool kit produced for UNESCO by a consortium of experts:

• African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)
• African Mathematical Union (AMU)
• Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM)
• UNESCO Cat II centre CIMPA (Centre international de mathématiques pures et appliquées)
• European Mathematical Society (EMS)
• Institut des Sciences mathématiques et de leurs interactions (INSMI) at CNRS
• Institut de valorisation des données (IVADO), Canada
• International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI)
• International Mathematical Union (IMU)
• International Science Council (ISC)

It consists in a collection of lively two-page briefs. As a follow-up of the year-long initiative Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 (MPE2013), the briefs highlight the role of mathematics in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda in three non-exclusive ways: Mathematics Success Stories; Mathematics Illuminated; Grand Challenges and Opportunities for Mathematics.

The MfA briefs promote mathematically-grounded solutions to global challenges. The collection explores a range of topics relevant to the Mathematics of Planet Earth, including topics such as poverty maps, epidemics, ecosystem dynamics, biodiversity conservation, invasive species, climate modelling and climate change, extreme natural events, sustainable management of natural resources. Examples include describing and monitoring the spreading of an epidemic, studying the expected evolution of the monsoon system under climate change, measuring biodiversity, and a grand challenge like food systems at risk. Some other briefs are oriented around social challenges, like modelling of vaccine hesitancy, measuring the gender gap and using complex network systems in mass disaster searches.

ICMI has contributed a MfA brief on the importance of mathematics education for sustainable development and why quality mathematics teachers are the key to improving young people’s life chances and critical thinking skills.

The tool kit will be virtually launched on March 14 2022 from 11:00 to 12:00 Paris time.

During this launch ICMI Vice Presidents Merrilyn Goos and Anjum Halai will present their brief: “Teaching Mathematics: Mathematics Education for Sustainable Development”. Details of the launch to be posted here.

Call for Nominations for the 2024 ICMI Emma Castelnuovo Award
Deadline for nominations: 30th November 2022

The Emma Castelnuovo Award recognizes outstanding achievements in the practice of mathematics education consistent with ICMI’s principles:

• the development of mathematical education at all levels and;
• the promotion of reflection, collaboration, exchange, and dissemination of ideas on the teaching and learning of mathematics from the primary to the university level.

The Emma Castelnuovo Award honors an individual, or a small team of individuals, for work in the development and implementation of exceptionally excellent and influential work in the practice of mathematics education related to one or more of the following:

• classroom teaching
• curriculum development
• instructional design (of materials or pedagogical models)
• teacher education programs, and/or
• field projects with a demonstrated influence on schools, districts, regions, or countries.

More information can be found on the Emma Castelnuovo Award page on ICMI's website.
 

Call for Nominations for the 2024 Felix Klein and Hans Freudenthal Awards
Deadline for nominations: 30th November 2022

The two awards recognize outstanding accomplishments in mathematics education research:

• Felix Klein Award recognizes lifelong achievement in mathematics education research,
• Hans Freudenthal Award recognizes a major program of research on mathematics education.

Felix Klein Award
The Felix Klein medal is awarded for life-time achievement in mathematics education research. This award acknowledges senior scholars who have made field-defining contributions over their professional careers. Awardees will have had an impact both at the national level, within their own countries, and at the international level. We have valued in the past those candidates who not only have made substantial research contributions, but also have introduced new issues, ideas, perspectives, and critical reflections. Additional considerations have included leadership roles, mentoring, and peer recognition, as well as the actual or potential relationship between the research done and improvement of mathematics education at large, through connections between research and practice.

Hans Freudenthal Award
The Hans Freudenthal medal acknowledges the outstanding contributions of an individual’s theoretically robust and coherent research program, which has had a clear impact on our research community. It honors a scholar who has initiated a new research program and has brought it to maturation over the past 10 years. Freudenthal awardees should also be researchers whose work is ongoing and who can be expected to continue contributing to the field. In brief, the criteria for this award are depth, novelty, sustainability, and impact of the research program.

As of 2024 all three awards will be given quadrennially, during the year that an ICME is held.

More information can be found on the awards page on ICMI's website.
 

We recognize that it’s a lot of work to put together a compelling nomination, but please do!

The two ICMI Awards Committees can only choose recipients from officially submitted nominations for the current round, accompanied by full documentation.

Thank you for considering this call seriously. We look forward to receiving your nominations.

Prof. Em. Helen Forgasz and Prof. Alan Schoenfeld
on behalf of the ICMI Emma Castelnuovo Awards Committee and the ICMI Klein and Freudenthal Awards Committee  

Latest updates from our ICMI Country Representatives (CR) and Affiliated Organizations

By Angel Ruiz President of Inter-American Committee of Mathematics Education (IACME)

Special issue in Tribute to Ubi D'Ambrosio

Cuadernos de Investigación y Formación en Educación Matemática [Journal of Research and Training in Mathematics Education] of the University of Costa Rica published a special issue in November in tribute to Ubiratan D'Ambrosio. This issue includes works by D'Ambrosio that had been published in Cuadernos at various times, but also others collected in other instances of publication. Other articles that continue to have an extraordinary influence on the Mathematics Education community in the Americas and the world are also included; some of these latter documents have a more academic meaning, others invoke a rather emotional or grateful meaning. The issue was organized into several sections: The Teaching of Mathematics, Ethnomathematics, Human Values, At IACME, Interviews and About Ubiratan D'Ambrosio. The edition was produced by the editorial team of Cuadernos, IACME (CIAEM) and the Mathematics Education Reform in Costa Rica Project.

The special number can be accessed:

• Complete (one PDF)
• At the University of Costa Rica Journal website

Tercer Congreso de Educación Matemática de América Central y El Caribe [Third Congress of Mathematics Education for Central America and the Caribbean]

This third congress of the Mathematics Education Network for Central America and the Caribbean was held virtually with great success on November 5, 12 and 24-26, 2021. It had the registration of more than 800 people from 26 countries, and 50 guest speakers. It was organized in Costa Rica by the Mathematics Education Reform in Costa Rica Project. This congress with very high academic standards also generated important lessons on the virtual organization of academic events. During it, a Tribute to Ubi D'Ambrosio was held, where the public launch of the special issue on D'Ambrosio published by Cuadernos de Investigación y Formación en Educación Matemática was made. A large part of the videos of the activities held can be seen on the CIAEM-REDUMATE YouTube channel.

1. CERME13, will take place in Budapest, Hungary on July 9-14, 2023, 1½ years after CERME12 and 1½ years before CERME14, planned in February 2025. Find out more.
2. ETC11 – ERME Topic Conference 11, on University Mathematics Education – will be held on October 12-15, 2022, in Hannover, Germany. See the first announcement here.
3. ECT12 - ERME Topic Conference 12, on Language in the Mathematics Classroom – will be held in Oxford, United Kingdom, September 7-10, 2022.  See the first announcement here.
4. YESS12 (12th YERME summer school) will be held in Linz, Austria,  August 21-27, 2022. See the first announcement here.
5. CERME14 is still far ahead, as it is to be held in early 2025, but the ERME board has now issued a call for bids to host this major event. The deadline to apply is April 1, 2022.

Watch the erme.site for other forthcoming news!

From Greg Oates

We are excited to announce that the MERGA 44 annual conference will be held in Australia, on the University of Tasmania’s Inveresk Precinct Campus, from the 3rd to 7th July 2022, in Launceston, Tasmania.  We are optimistic that this conference might be our first opportunity to meet physically with our MERGA colleagues in several years. However, we recognize that there remains ongoing uncertainty with respect to travel restrictions, and will thus be planning for a hybrid conference, with online access for those unable to travel, to both attend other presentations and present themselves.  
 
Conference Welcome can be followed on Youtube. 
 
More information can be found on the official conference website (for submission information).

3rd Conference of the Association de Didacticiens des Mathématiques Africains (ADiMA3) in Tunisia at Hammamet - 15 au 20 August 2022

ADiMA is proud to annouce the lauch of the 3rd conference « ADiMA3 » under the auspice of l’Association Tunisienne de Géomatique (ATG) and l’Université de Tunis el Manar (UTM) - 15 - 20 August 2022 Hotel Chich Khan, Hammamet - Tunisia

This 3rd conference is part of the activities of the project that was initiated by an international team of African researchers in mathematics didactics. This research project is intended to contribute to the development of research in didactics of mathematics and science and technology at all levels of education, with a particular concern for the development of new research in these areas and for dialogue with mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, engineers  etc.

The ADiMA executive board and the local organizing committee are currently working to ensure the success of this international scientific event.
We invite you to reserve the dates of August 15 to 20, 2022 for your participation in this symposium and we kindly ask you to disseminate the information widely.
ADiMa is an ICMI Affiliated Regional Organization

The conference is sponsored by the following:

• Associations (ATDM, ATSM, SMT, MIMS, AFTM)
• Institutions universitaires (IPEI El Manar, ENIT, ISEFC, IFT et IBLV)
• Laboratoires de recherche (ECOTIDI, LAMSIN-ENIT)

Theme of the conference: Interdisciplinary approach in the teaching and learning of mathematics: what projects and what issues for Africa?
Sub-themes
    A.    The relationship between mathematics and the concrete, mathematics and other disciplines,
    B.    Conditions for the realization of the interdisciplinary project
    C.    Teacher training and the interdisciplinary project
    D.    Historical, epistemological, philosophical, ideological and cultural dimensions in the interdisciplinary project

The website is in progress. For information please contact: rahim.kouki@ipeiem.utm.tn

9th European Summer University on The History and Epistemology in Mathematics Education
Dates: 18-22 July 2022
Location: University of Salerno – Department of Mathematics - Fisciano (SA), Italy
More information can be found on the official website.

Annual Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, PME45
Dates: July 18 to 23, 2022
Location: Alicante, Spain
The First Announcement can be downloaded from the conference website.
See also the conference page on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where news and reminders are posted.
You may pre-register and make submissions at the ConfTool site.

Seventh International Conference on the History of Mathematics Education (ICHME-7)
Dates: September 19. – 23, 2022
Location: University of Mainz, (Germany)
More information can be found on the conference website.

12th International Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness Conference (MCG12)
The conference will be held for only the second time in the United States, in Las Vegas, Nevada, September 25 – 28, 2022. Considered the premier conference of its type in the world, this conference will have a focus on mathematical expertise and innovation. The opening session on Sunday will feature Karl Schaffer and Erik Stern. With a special focus on thorough, yet playful, integration of dance and mathematics, their presentations at the conference will include opportunities to experience physical, creative problem solving, as well as sharing insights that they have gained through their work together and separately. Keynote speakers include Yeap Ban Har from Singapore, Zalman Usiskin from the United States, and Marianne Nolte from Germany.
Electronic proceedings will be available prior to the conference.
See the conference website for more information.
Contact Linda Sheffield (sheffield@nku.edu) with any questions.

World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions (WFNMC-09), will be held in 19 – 25 July, 2022, in Sofia, Bulgaria
Find out more on the website of WFNMC 09.

ICTMA20 will be held in Würzburg, Germany.
Find out more on the ICTMA20 website.
Note the revised dates for ICTMA20, delayed due to the worldwide pandemic are 26 - 30 September 2022.

CIBEM – Congresso Iberoamericano de Educação Matemática / Iberoamerican Congress of Mathematics Education (CIBEM)
CIBEM IX will be held in the city of Sao Paolo, scheduled for December 5 to 9, 2022.
IX CIBEM is planned as a space open to all current perspectives, theoretical and conceptual approaches that permeate both empirical work and theoretical reflection of those who practice Mathematics Education.
The expected number of participants is 1200, awaiting the attendance of researchers, professors and undergraduate and graduate students interested in Mathematics Education.
Find out more on the CIBEM website.

Espace Mathématique Francophone (EMF 2022)

Conference Language: French 
The next conference of the Espace Mathématique Francophone (EMF 2022) will take place from Monday 12 to Friday 16 December, 2022 in Cotonou (Bénin) and will be preceded by the youth project from Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 December, 2022.

Depending on the evolution of the pandemic, it is possible that some of the scheduled activities will take place in hybrid mode. The local organizing committee is studying this possibility and is trying to find ways to make it work.
We will keep you informed of the evolution of this organization.

More information can be found on the EMF 2022 website.

CIAEM (Conferencia interamericana de educacion mathematica)/ IACME Inter-American Conference on Mathematics Education
CIAEM/IACME XVI will be held from July 30 -August 4, 2023 in Peru.
More information can be found on the CIAEM website.