[ICMI-News] ICMI Newsletter July 2019

ICMI Administrator icmi.administrator at mathunion.org
Mon Jul 1 15:13:23 CEST 2019


*ICMI Newsletter July 2019*

Editors:
Abraham Arcavi (ICMI Secretary General)
Merrilyn Goos (ICMI Vice President)
Lena Koch (ICMI Administrative Manager)

Contact:
ICMI_Secretary-General at mathunion.org 
<mailto:%20ICMI_Secretary-General at mathunion.org>
merrilyn.goos at ul.ie <mailto:%20merrilyn.goos at ul.ie>
icmi.administrator at mathunion.org 
<mailto:%20icmi.administrator at mathunion.org>

Graphic Design:
Ramona Fischer

*CONTENTS*

1.  Editorial - Carlos Kenig, President of the International 
Mathematical Union

2.    From the desk of Jill Adler, President of the International 
Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI).

3.    ICMI Statement on Evaluation of Scholarly Work in Mathematics 
Education and a call for comments, by Merrilyn Goos, ICMI Vice President

4.    ICME15

5.    Once upon a time… Historical vignettes from the ICMI Archives: 
Episodes from the Freudenthal era – Bernard Hodgson, Curator of the ICMI 
Archives (former ICMI SG)

6.    Survey of the Education Committee of the European Mathematical 
Society (EMS)

7.    Upcoming events

*
*

*1. Editorial - Carlos Kenig, President of the International 
Mathematical Union*

My term as President of the IMU started in January 2019. The ensuing 
months have been very intense, setting up the structures for the current 
four-year IMU cycle, and a major learning experience for me.

The first meeting of the new Executive Committee (EC) of the IMU took 
place last March, at the IMU Secretariat in Berlin, and many important 
decisions were taken at this meeting. Since with the exception of the 
past President and the Secretary General (who is in his second term), 
all remaining members of the EC had no previous EC experience, all of us 
had to learn the job of being an EC member as well as how to work 
together. I am very happy to report that this turned out very well.

Right before the EC meeting I participated in the yearly meeting (also 
held in Berlin) of the IMU’s Commission for Developing Countries (CDC). 
This was a great opportunity for me to learn more about the important 
work of the CDC and its partners. The CDC is charged with managing the 
programs of the IMU in the developing world. The CDC and its partners 
have, with very limited resources, a disproportionately high impact. One 
of the projects discussed at this meeting, which I hadn’t previously 
known about, was the Capacity and Networking Project (CANP), which is 
run jointly by the CDC and ICMI. The aim of CANP is to enhance the 
mathematical education in developing countries, at all levels, by 
developing the educational capacity of those who educate mathematics 
teachers (from all levels of instruction). This is very important, and 
with a large potential pay-off, since each teacher reaches many 
students, thus widely propagating the acquired knowledge.

Last May I participated in the annual meeting of the Executive Committee 
of ICMI (of which I am an ex-officio member), in Montevideo. This was 
another great learning opportunity for me. At this meeting I was able to 
learn in detail about the preparations for ICME 14 (that I look forward 
to attending), which are very advanced, and about the many impressive 
activities of ICMI, dealing with both theoretical research in 
mathematics education and with the practice of mathematics education, at 
all levels. I also learned more about the CANP project that I mentioned 
earlier and about its successes and its challenges. I continue to be 
impressed with this project.

One thing that struck me during my visit to Uruguay and after the ICMI 
EC meeting is the gulf that seems to exist, in many countries and in 
many institutions around the world, between mathematicians and 
mathematics educators. This seems to me to be very artificial, and very 
damaging to both communities, since research and education cannot and 
should not be separated. I hope that the close continuing collaboration 
between IMU and ICMI will be a vehicle for improving this regrettable 
situation. I very much look forward to this continuing collaboration.

Carlos E. Kenig,
University of Chicago, USA

*
*

*2. From the desk of Jill Adler, President of the International 
Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI)*

*ICME15*
The past few months have been very busy for the ICMI Executive Committee 
(EC), office-bearers and members. Jill, Abraham and Jean-Luc completed 
the ICME15 site visits. From these we prepared a report for the EC 
meeting in May, where the decision on the site of ICME15 was to take 
place. Thank you to both our Australian and Czech mathematics education 
colleagues and the wide range of their collaborators in Sydney and 
Prague for their excellent bids. The EC’s decision process was not easy 
given the high quality of both bids. It gives me great pleasure in this 
introduction to share the decision ICME15 will be held in Sydney, 
Australia. We are confident we have made a good decision and can look 
forward to the introduction to ICME15 in the closing ceremony in 
Shanghai next year.

*ICMI STUDY 25*
As reported in the previous newsletter, Jill and Abraham (as ex-officio 
members) participated in the first IPC meeting of our newly launched 
ICMI Study 25: Teachers of Mathematics Working and Learning in 
Collaborative Groups. The meeting was in February 2019, in Berlin, and 
the study Discussion Document and Call for Papers was disseminated soon 
thereafter. It can be found at http://icmistudy25.ie.ulisboa.pt/. The 
deadline for submission of papers to the Study Conference is July 19, 
2019 and thus very soon. We are looking forward to your contributions to 
this study, and to having an excellent working conference in Lisbon, 
Portugal in early February 2020, and the study volume that will be its 
final product.

*ICME14*
At the end of March, Jill and Abraham travelled to Shanghai to join 
colleagues from across the world for our second IPC meeting for ICME14. 
The fruits of that meeting, and all the preparation that preceded it by 
the Local Organizing Committee and the overall convenor and Chair of the 
IPC Jianpan Wang, have already been seen. The Second Announcement for 
ICME14 has been widely distributed across all our networks. We hope that 
all our members have begun thinking about and working on their 
contributions to the congress. I take this opportunity to remind all 
that we aim to support the participation of as many people as possible 
from low income countries through the Solidarity Fund. Applications for 
such funding must come in timeously, and these depend, of course, on 
acceptance of participation in the Congress e.g. in a TSG. Information 
can be found at 
https://www.icme14.org/static/en/news/68.html?v=1560259311005  We are 
very excited with the topical and interesting range of plenary lectures 
and panels, the survey teams, invited lectures and all other activities 
in the Scientific Program. This includes an important innovation in the 
organization of the program related to Topic Study Groups: the two TSG 
strands will enable every congress participant to participate in two 
TSGs (though present a paper only in one).

*ICMI AWARDS*
As I write this our committees for the Emma Castelnuova, Hans 
Freudenthal and Felix Klein awards are hard at work. Thank you Konrad 
Krainer and Anna Sfard for Chairing these important committees. Konrad 
and Anna have informed me (and so the EC) that they are very happy with 
the quality and quantity of nominations received. As can be imagined, 
selecting our awardees and so marking the excellence in our fields of 
practice and research is rewarding but challenging work. We do not 
expect the outcome of the committees’ deliberations until much later in 
the year.

*ICMI EC ANNUAL MEETING*
As if the site visits and IPC meeting in different countries and on 
different continents were not sufficient travel, we responded to an 
invitation from our Uruguayan colleagues in mathematics education to 
hold our 2019 annual EC meeting in Montevideo. We gladly accepted this 
generous invitation as it is ICMI tradition to shift its activities 
across regions of the world if there are possibilities for interacting 
with and supporting local communities. Merrilyn, Abraham and Luis gave 
plenary talks and workshops at the national conference that occurred 
immediately after our EC meeting had ended. Yuriko, Zahra and Anita 
attended the opening ceremony and Merrilyn’s plenary (which was 
translated simultaneously into Spanish), and had an opportunity to 
interact with local colleagues.

We were happy to welcome to our EC meeting the new IMU President Carlos 
Kenig, Paolo Piccione, (the new IMU EC liaison for ICMI) and Helge 
Holden who was re-elected as IMU SG. Their contributions to our ongoing 
work through their participation in our EC are critical and I concur 
wholeheartedly with Carlos in his editorial above, that we are all the 
richer when there is active collaboration across the communities of 
mathematicians and mathematics educators. Holding the EC in Latin 
America in May also coincided with the CIAEM XV conference, one of the 
regional conferences affiliated with ICMI. Jill, Ferdinando and Yuriko 
were invited speakers there and so travelled from Montevideo to Medellin 
in Colombia where CIAEM was held.

*ICMI PROPOSAL – DOCUMENT ON CITATIONS AND PROMOTION*
Immediately following my message is a proposal ICMI has developed for 
use by members with regards to publications, citations and promotion. 
Thanks to Merrilyn and Zahra for the work they did to initiate this. We 
are sharing it here in the newsletter so that we can invite comments 
from all that will enable us to improve the proposal. Please read this, 
and we look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions.

*REFLECTIONS*
In my last “from the President’s desk”, I commented about CERME which 
had just been held in Utrecht in February 2019. The privilege you have 
as President is to travel the world and interact with colleagues across 
continents and countries. As I flew home from Medellin (and living at 
the Southern tip of Africa means most flights are long haul) I had time 
to reflect on how much I had learned just through these activities in 
the last two months – learning that goes beyond our ongoing ICMI 
activities like preparing a bid for and then organising an ICME; 
launching an ICMI Study, its first IPC meeting and the preparation of 
its Discussion Document; and reporting on and accounting for all the EC 
work done and to be done in the next months. Making a decision on the 
site for ICME15 was only one of a number of critical issues on the EC 
agenda in our recent meeting.

Meeting people in Latin America first-hand, and in the context of their 
local and regional activity, provided an experience not possible through 
reading about these communities and their work, or meeting them and 
interacting on their work in an international conference, for example, 
like PME. The opportunity I had to interact directly with two Latin 
American communities (quite similar yet with interesting differences) 
helped me to reflect further on two critical challenges of effective 
communication in an international community like ICMI.

First, and most obvious, there is the issue of language. The languages 
of communication in the CIAEM conference were Spanish and Portuguese, 
and predominantly Spanish. As someone who knew very little Spanish or 
Portuguese besides some everyday interactive phrases, communicating my 
own work, and then attempting to learn from others’ presentations was a 
significant challenge. This brought home to me the question of what are 
effective means of communication in such settings, for those more and 
less fluent in the language of the conference. In addition to 
differences in spoken languages, understanding educational cultures, 
practices and problems across communities is also critical for effective 
communication. Do we reflect sufficiently on these issues when preparing 
talks or papers for international audiences? Are the shared assumptions 
we take for granted in our active networks meaningful to all? What work 
do we need to do to foster effective communication about mathematics 
education in our multilingual and multicultural events?

The thematic afternoon in ICME provides opportunity for the host country 
to share its educational culture and practices. In Shanghai, we will 
have such opportunity and will find presentations by practitioners in 
Chinese, as this is the route to hearing authentic voices sharing their 
educational culture and practice. Simultaneous translation will not be 
possible in these sessions. We will collectively need to assist with 
other means of translation for participants. And this will entail both 
language and cultural considerations. I look forward to discussing these 
and other substantive issues when our country representatives meet in 
Shanghai for the ICMI General Assembly, just prior to ICME14, and then 
when we all meet in the Congress itself, and so in a way not possible to 
engage further in this newsletter.

PLEASE VISIT www.icme14.org <https://www.mathunion.org/icmi/www.icme14.org>

*3. ICMI Statement on Evaluation of Scholarly Work in Mathematics 
Education – A call for comments by Merrilyn Goos, ICMI Vice President*

At the ICMI Executive Committee meeting held in Geneva in March 2017, it 
was noted that ICMI had been approached to inquire whether our 
organization has an official stance regarding use of citation indices as 
the basis for evaluation and promotion of scholars in academic 
positions. A suggestion arising from that meeting was that ICMI could 
refer to the recommendation on the evaluation of individual researchers 
in the mathematical sciences that had been issued by the International 
Mathematical Union (IMU) (available at 
https://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Report/140810_Evaluation_of_Individuals_WEB.pdf.)

A similar document based on the same considerations has now been 
developed by ICMI. We invite all members of the ICMI community to read 
this document (see below) and send us any comments by 30 September 2019. 
Please email comments to ICMI Vice President Merrilyn Goos at 
merrilyn.goos at ul.ie <mailto:merrilyn.goos at ul.ie>. The final version of 
this document will then be published on the ICMI website.

*Evaluation of scholarly work in mathematics education*
Evaluating the quality and impact of scholarly work in all academic 
disciplines has become an increasing concern of universities as well as 
many national governments. However, generic evaluation processes do not 
always take into account discipline-specific norms for conducting and 
publishing research and other forms of scholarly work undertaken to 
influence practice or policy. Even within the global field of 
educational research there exist various sub-fields that take different 
approaches to theory, method, and dissemination of findings.

Concerns about the need to improve the evaluation of scholarly work have 
led to the formulation of various statements and recommendations that 
are either specific to a discipline^1 or applicable to all research 
fields^2 . The purpose of the present document is to consider the 
question of how to evaluate scholarly work in the specialized 
educational sub-field of mathematics education. It sets out ICMI’s 
position on evaluation of individual researchers in mathematics education.

^1 See the IMU (2014) statement on evaluation on researchers in the 
mathematical sciences.
^2 See the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA, n.d.) 
- a worldwide initiative covering all scholarly disciplines and all key 
stakeholders including funders, publishers, professional societies, 
institutions, and individual researchers.

*
*

*This document is organized around three questions, with brief responses 
set out below that are elaborated in subsequent sections:*

1. What is being evaluated and for what purpose?

	

Individuals or institutions? Research output or other forms of scholarly 
work?
For decisions about hiring, promotion and tenure?
For decisions about institutional resource allocation and continuation 
or cessation of funding for research centres or institutes?

2. What problems arise in evaluating scholarly work in mathematics 
education?

	

Mathematics education research journals are not adequately represented 
in citation databases.
Journal citation metrics are improperly used as an indicator of article 
quality.
Predatory publishers exploit inexperienced researchers.
Evaluation focuses on too narrow a range of scholarly work.

3. What solutions can be proposed?

	

Promote alternatives to citation-based evaluation systems.
Develop ways of evidencing research impact as well as research quality.
Broaden the scope of evaluation to include scholarly activity that 
influences educational practice and policy.

*
*

*A. What is being evaluated and for what purpose?*

Academics employed in universities are expected to devote some of their 
time to evaluating the scholarly work of other individuals, for example, 
by reviewing journal manuscripts, conference papers and grant 
applications, examining research students’ theses, or assessing academic 
performance to inform decisions about hiring or promotion. Expert peer 
review is universally recognized as being fundamental to research 
evaluation, since only experts in a field can judge the significance and 
originality of a piece of research or the quality and relevance of the 
publication outlets in which the findings are disseminated.

Research evaluation can also be used to judge the performance of higher 
education institutions with the goal of providing accountability for 
public spending on research. Some countries (e.g., the UK, Australia, 
New Zealand) conduct regular national research evaluation exercises that 
typically place most emphasis on publication quality, with scores or 
ratings being assigned to either individual academics or 
discipline-based units of assessment within each institution^3 . 
Judgments about research quality may be made on the basis of expert peer 
review or bibliometric data, or some combination of these.

Evaluation of the scholarly work of individuals or institutions is a 
high-stakes enterprise with significant implications for career 
progression and academic reputation, and sometimes for the selective 
allocation of institutional research funding. It is therefore essential 
to use valid measures that not only capture the distinguishing features 
of quality in a specific discipline, but also avoid perverse 
consequences that might lead to “gaming” of the evaluation system and 
thus distortion or undermining of research goals.

^3 For more information, see https://www.ref.ac.uk/about/(UK), 
https://www.arc.gov.au/excellence-research-australia(Australia), 
https://www.tec.govt.nz/funding/funding-and-performance/funding/fund-finder/performance-based-research-fund/ 
(New Zealand).

*
*

*B. What problems arise in evaluating scholarly work in mathematics 
education?*

Research evaluation depends largely on assessment of the quality of 
research outputs. In mathematics education, papers in peer-reviewed 
journals are typically the most highly regarded form of publication. 
Evaluation of such outputs can be either quantitative, relying on 
various forms of bibliometric analysis using citation data, or 
qualitative, relying on expert peer judgment.

A major limitation of citation-based systems for evaluating journal 
quality is the limited coverage they give to mathematics education 
journals. Nivens and Otten (2017) compiled a list of 69 journals that 
have an explicit focus on mathematics education research, but found that 
only six appeared in the Web of Science database from which journal 
impact factors are calculated. They concluded that Web of Science is of 
little value to mathematics education, despite its widespread use to 
measure scholarly output in other disciplines. A further limitation of 
all three major journal ranking systems – Web of Science (Impact Factor, 
IF), Scopus (Scopus Journal Ranking, SJR), and Google Scholar (h5-index) 
– is that they only trace citations within their own data bases, thus 
excluding the vast majority of mathematics education journals.
Nivens and Otten (2017) warn of a further problem, when journal citation 
metrics are improperly used to draw conclusions about the impact of 
articles published in particular journals. They show that there is 
little correlation between a journal’s citation-based measures of impact 
(such as IF) and the number of citations received by articles published 
in that journal. Yet journal impact measures and rankings are often used 
– inappropriately – in making decisions about tenure and promotion of 
individual academics.

Evaluations based on so-called “objective” quantitative methods are not 
inherently more reliable than expert human judgments. Williams and 
Leatham (2017) cautioned against giving too much credence to citation 
analysis in mathematics education, noting that “at a minimum, the 
literature raises questions of whether citation-based indices are valid 
and meaningful in our field and how they compare with other ranking 
methods” (p. 372).

Despite the significant problems outlined above, citation-based measures 
are increasingly being used to compare and rank individual academics or 
even entire academic departments and disciplines. Such ill-advised 
evaluation practices can have perverse consequences. For example, 
researchers whose universities evaluate their performance on the basis 
of journal impact factors or quantitatively derived rankings can be 
exploited by predatory publishers that promise fast peer-reviewing 
without the full editorial and publishing services of a legitimate 
journal. Early career researchers, doctoral students, and academics in 
developing countries are especially vulnerable to these unethical practices.

A different kind of problem that arises from attempts to evaluate 
scholarly work in mathematics education concerns the practice-engaged 
nature of our field (Nivens & Otten, 2017). Thus citations in scholarly 
journals are not the only way of measuring impact: in addition, 
researchers in mathematics education value dissemination of their 
scholarship in practitioner journals, through teacher education and 
professional development work, and by influencing education policy 
development.

*
*

*C. What solutions can be proposed?*

*Recommendation 1*
ICMI does not support reliance on only quantitative measures of research 
quality, and in particular citation analyses, to evaluate scholarly work 
in mathematics education. ICMI supports the IMU’s (2014) argument that 
“nothing (and in particular no semi-automatised pseudo-scientific 
evaluation that involves numbers or data) can replace evaluation by an 
individual who actually understands what he/she is evaluating”. 
Education in general and mathematics education in particular are 
grounded in diverse cultures and social contexts. Yet the richness and 
effectiveness of the mathematics education communities worldwide depend 
on this diversity. Evaluating the contributions of individual 
researchers to advancing knowledge therefore requires different and 
complementary approaches in order to do justice to these complexities. 
At the very least, any quantitatively based rankings of journals should 
be supplemented with qualitative judgments informed by the expert survey 
of journals conducted by Williams and Leatham (2017).

*Recommendation 2*
Analysis of journal citation data leads to flawed measures of academic 
impact. Alternative impact measures are being developed in some 
countries, where impact is defined in terms of “the demonstrable 
contribution that research makes to the economy, society, culture, 
national security, public policy or services, health, the environment, 
or quality of life, beyond contributions to academia” (Australian 
Research Council, 2012). These broader measures of impact should be 
included in any evaluation of scholarly work in mathematics education.

*Recommendation 3*
Following on from the previous recommendation, ICMI supports broadening 
the scope of evaluation of scholarly work to recognize academic 
activities that influence practice and policy in mathematics education.

*References*
Australian Research Council (2012). Research impact principles and 
framework. Retrieved 8 November 2016 from 
http://www.arc.gov.au/research-impact-principles-and-framework#Definition
Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) (n.d.). San Francisco 
Declaration on Research Assessment. Retrieved 4 May 2019 from 
https://sfdora.org/read/
International Mathematical Union (2014). Recommendation on the 
evaluation of individual researchers in the mathematical sciences. 
Retrieved 3 March 2019 from 
https://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Report/140810_Evaluation_of_Individuals_WEB.pdf
Nivens, R. A., & Otten, S. (2017). Assessing journal quality in 
mathematics education. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 
48, 348–368.
Williams, S. R., & Leatham, K. R. (2017). Journal quality in mathematics 
education. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 48, 369–396.

TEACHERS OF MATHEMATICS WORKING AND LEARNING IN COLLABORATIVE GROUPS

ICMI STUDY 25 – DEADLINE: JULY 19, 2019
http://icmistudy25.ie.ulisboa.pt/

*4. ICME15*

ICME15 will take place in Sydney, Australia on July 7-14, 2024. Start 
packing!

The convenor of ICME15 is Professor *Kim Beswick*, Head of the School of 
Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

The Chair of the Local Organizing Committee is *Will Morony*, former CEO 
of the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers.

Kim, Will and their teams will make a presentation/invitation at the 
closing ceremony of ICME14, on July 19, 2019 in Shanghai.

*
*

*5. Once upon a time… Historical vignettes from the ICMI Archives: 
Episodes from the Freudenthal era – Bernard Hodgson, Curator of the ICMI 
Archives (former ICMI SG)*

In his plenary talk delivered at the symposium held in Rome in 2008 on 
the occasion of the centennial of ICMI, Hyman Bass (ICMI President 
1999-2006) uses the expression “Freudenthal era” ([1], p. 10)—from the 
name of Hans Freudenthal (ICMI President 1967- 1970)—to refer a 
particularly active period in the life of ICMI. It corresponds to a time 
when mathematics education was emerging as a bona fide scientific and 
academic discipline, ICMI being at the international level an important 
player in that connection.

Emphasis was then put less on comparative studies of national curricula, 
as had been the case during the first decades of ICMI, and more in 
particular on the classroom interactions between teachers and students 
(or pupils). The spirit of the time is well captured in a series of 
resolutions adopted at the first International Congress on Mathematical 
Education (ICME) held on Lyon in 1969, as can be seen for instance in 
the following statement:



Scan from the ICME-1 Proceedings [2], p. 284 (Source: IMU Archive)


The instigation of the ICME congresses, under the dynamism and vision of 
Freudenthal, is clearly one of his major accomplishments during his ICMI 
presidency. Freudenthal’s main motivation was his dissatisfaction with 
the way educational issues were addressed at the quadrennial 
international congresses of mathematicians. Another of his achievements 
is the launching of what was to become one of the main journals devoted 
to research in mathematics education, Educational Studies in 
Mathematics, not formally created under the auspices of ICMI but clearly 
with its assistance ([3], p. 259). Here again, Freudenthal was 
displeased, this time with the discussion of educational matters in 
L’Enseignement Mathématique, the official organ of ICMI since its 
inception in 1908.

As testified by several documents from the ICMI/IMU Archive, those most 
significant initiatives were taken by ICMI in isolation from IMU, the 
International Mathematical Union, in spite of the formal existence of 
ICMI as a commission of IMU. In a letter to Freudenthal’s successor as 
ICMI President, Sir James Lighthill, IMU President Henri Cartan lamented 
this absence of communication: “During the four years when I was 
President of IMU, I regretted on many occasions this lack of reciprocal 
information between IMU and ICMI. In particular, the decision to hold 
special international congresses on mathematical education, independent 
from the regular international congresses of mathematicians, was taken 
by ICMI without consulting IMU.” ([4]).

In many ways, Freudenthal can be seen as acting as president more or 
less by himself. In a previous letter to Lighthill, Cartan had even 
described as unsatisfactory the relationship between Freudenthal and the 
Secretary of ICMI, André Delessert, who, in Cartan’s words, had become a 
“simple letterbox” of the president ([5]). This perception is reinforced 
by a comment from Delessert himself who, in a letter to IMU Secretary 
Otto Frostman ([6]), explains that he is not so well informed of what is 
being prepared under the ICMI Executive Committee, as ICMI secretarial 
work is being taken care of by Freudenthal’s secretariat.


Scan from a letter of Delessert to Frostman [6] (Source: IMU Archive)


On the occasion of ICMI Centennial celebration, I had the opportunity of 
interviewing Sir Bryan Thwaites, member of the ICMI Executive Committee 
during Freudenthal’s presidency. When asked about the dynamics inside 
that EC, and in particular about what happened during the EC meetings, 
Thwaites replied: “You know, I can’t really think of any meeting of the 
whole Executive Committee. In Freudenthal’s time, when he was the 
chairman, he certainly ran it as his own fiefdom. And he didn’t easily 
take into account other people’s views.” ([7], Part 1, approx. 3 min 15 
s) I leave the final word of this saga to Cartan, reacting to some 
non-trivial actions taken by Freudenthal very close to the end of his 
term as ICMI President. In a letter to Secretary Frostman ([8]), the IMU 
President launches his comments with a cri du cœur: “Freudenthal me 
donne encore du souci.” (“Freudenthal again causes me worries.”)

*Sources*
[1]    Bass, H. (2008). Moments in the life of ICMI. In M. Menghini, F. 
Furinghetti, L. Giacardi, & F. Arzarello (Eds.), The first century of 
the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (1908- 2008). 
Reflecting and shaping the world of mathematics education (pp. 9-24). 
Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
[www.mathunion.org/icmi/digital-library/other-icmi-conferences-proceedings 
<https://www.mathunion.org/icmi/www.mathunion.org/icmi/digital-library/other-icmi-conferences-proceedings>]
[2]    The Editorial Board of Educational Studies in Mathematics (Eds.). 
(1969). Proceedings of the First International Congress on Mathematical 
Education. (International Commission on Mathematical Education [sic], 
ICMI). Dordrecht: D. Reidel. [Also in Educational Studies in 
Mathematics, 2 (1969) 135-418.]
[3]    Lehto, O. (1998). Mathematics without borders: A history of the 
International Mathematical Union. New York : Springer.
[www.mathunion.org/organization/imu-history 
<https://www.mathunion.org/icmi/www.mathunion.org/organization/imu-history>]
[4]    Cartan, H. (1970). Letter to James Lighthill, incoming ICMI 
President, 20 November. IMU Archive, Box 14B—International Commission on 
Mathematical Instruction, 1967-1980. (Translated from the French)
[5]    Cartan, H. (1970). Letter to James Lighthill, incoming ICMI 
president, 20 August. IMU Archive, Box 14B—International Commission on 
Mathematical Instruction, 1967-1980. (Translated from the French)
[6]    Delessert, A. (1969). Letter to Otto Frostman, IMU Secretary, 22 
March. IMU Archive, Box 14B— International Commission on Mathematical 
Instruction, 1967-1980.
[7]    Thwaites, B. (2007). Video interview on the occasion of ICMI 
Centennial (by B.R. Hodgson). In F. Furinghetti & L. Giacardi (Eds.) The 
first century of the International Commission on Mathematical 
Instruction (1908-2008). The history of ICMI.
[www.icmihistory.unito.it 
<https://www.mathunion.org/icmi/www.icmihistory.unito.it>]
[8]    Cartan, H. (1970). Letter to Otto Frostman, IMU Secretary, 15 
October. IMU Archive, Box 14B— International Commission on Mathematical 
Instruction, 1967-198

*
*

*6. Survey of the Education Committee of the European Mathematical Society*

Jürg Kramer, Chairman of the Education Committee of the European 
Mathematical Society (EMS) addressed ICMI with the request to distribute 
a worldwide call inviting mathematics educators and mathematicians 
interested in mathematics education to participate in a survey EMS is 
now conducting. The survey is about the problem of transition of high 
school students to universities. The announcement and invitation follows.

*
*

*Survey by the EMS Education Committee*

Student transition from school-level mathematics to university-level 
mathematics, often referred to as the secondary-tertiary transition 
(STT) is an enduring, complicated and multi-faceted process. STT is a 
long-standing issue of concern, which has merited significant attention 
in mathematics education research and practice. The EMS Education 
Committee recognized that our knowledge about successful ways of dealing 
with STT is still insufficient and that moving forward requires a 
large-scope effort on the part of all parties involved, including 
mathematics lecturers, school teachers, education researchers, 
policymakers and students in transition. As part of this effort, the 
Committee is conducting a survey among mathematicians. The goal of the 
survey is to collect and report to the mathematics community information 
needed in order to devise national and international actions that can 
essentially improve the state of the art with respect to STT.

We would be thankful to you if you distributed the survey below among 
the members of your national mathematical societies. The completion of 
the survey takes about 15 minutes. The survey is open until September 
15, 2019.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdcxoDW63m1h7nmdacQkhtWS8cGHH84K4a8OU-fWVnqIEuGJA/viewform

For more background information about STT, we refer to
http://euro-math-soc.eu/sites/default/files/STT-survey-%2015-02-2019.pdf

*7. Upcoming Events*

• The next PME Annual Conference will take place in Pretoria, South 
Africa, from July 7 to 12, 2019. 
http://www.igpme.org/index.php/annual-conference

• The International Commission for the Study and Improvement of 
Mathematics Teaching, an ICMI Affiliated Organization announces the 
CIEAEM71 to be held in Braga, Portugal (at Instituto de Educação da 
Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar) on July 22-26, 2019. The theme 
of the conference is Connections and understanding in mathematics 
education: Making sense of a complex world. 
http://www.eventos.ciec-uminho.org/cieaem71/

• Fifteenth bi-annual conference on Elementary Mathematics Teaching, 
SEMT '19, to be held from August 18-22, 2019, in 
Prague.https://www.semt.cz/ <https://www.semt.cz/>

• Sixth International Conference on the History of Mathematics Education 
(ICHME-6) CIRM, Marseille (France), September 16-20, 2019. 
https://ak-mg-u.uni-mainz.de/files/2019/01/ICHME_6_1st-Announcement_CfP.pdf

• ICMI Study 25: Teachers of Mathematics Working and Learning in 
Collaborative Groups to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, February 3-7, 2020. 
http://icmistudy25.ie.ulisboa.pt/

• 14th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME14), from 
July 12 to 19, 2020, Shanghai, China, 
http://www.icme14.org/static/en/index.html

• ICME15 will take place in Sydney, Australia on July 7-14, 2024.

*
*

*SUBSCRIBING TO ICMI NEWS*

There are two ways of subscribing to ICMI News:
1.    Click on http://www.mathunion.org/mailman/listinfo/icmi-newsand go 
to the "Subscribe" button to subscribe to ICMI News online.
2.    Send an e-mail to icmi-news-request at mathunion.org with the 
Subject-line: Subject: subscribe
In both cases you will get an e-mail to confirm your subscription so 
that misuse will be minimized.

ICMI will not use the list of ICMI News addresses for any purpose other 
than sending ICMI News, and will not make it available to others.

The Newsletter in PDF starting from July 2014 can be found here: 
https://www.mathunion.org/icmi/publications/icmi-newsletter/icmi-newsletter-archive-starting-july-2014 
version/ 
<https://www.mathunion.org/icmi/publications/icmi-newsletter/icmi-newsletter-archive-starting-july-2014%20version/>
All previous issues can be seen at:
https://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news/

-- 
This email address is read and answered by
Ramona Fischer
ICMI and CDC Administrative Manager

International Mathematical Union
Secretariat
Hausvogteiplatz 11 A
10117 Berlin, Germany
www.mathunion.org/cdc
https://www.mathunion.org/organization/imu-secretariat

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news/attachments/20190701/fb6208ad/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: inhafjpmbggekicb.png
Type: image/png
Size: 42611 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news/attachments/20190701/fb6208ad/attachment.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: mnchlnbepdieabln.png
Type: image/png
Size: 31450 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news/attachments/20190701/fb6208ad/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ICMI Newsletter_July 1.2019 final.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 2463111 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news/attachments/20190701/fb6208ad/attachment.pdf>


More information about the ICMI-News mailing list