Mathematics Education in Brazil

This book presents, for the first time in English, the state of the art of Mathematics Education research in Brazil, a country that has the strongest community in this field in Latin America. Edited by leading researchers in the area, the volume provides the international academic community a summary of the scientific production of the thirteen working groups of the Brazilian Society of Mathematics Education (SBEM), the national scientific society that brings together researchers, teachers, students and other professionals of the area. 

These working groups meet every three years at the International Seminar of Mathematics Education (SIPEM) and cover the following topics: Mathematics Education in the Early Years and Primary Education (Y1-Y5); Mathematics Education in the Middle School (Y6-Y9); Mathematics Education in the High School (Y10-Y12); Mathematics Education at the University level; History of Mathematics, Culture and Mathematics Education; Digital Technologies and Distance Education; Teacher Education; Assessment and Mathematics Education; Cognitive and Linguistic Processes in Mathematics Education; Mathematical Modeling; Philosophy of Mathematics Education, Teaching Probability and Statistics; and Difference, Inclusion and Mathematics Education. 

Each chapter of the book presents an overview of the production of a working group and they are all preceded by an introduction by professor Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, one of the pioneers of Mathematics Education in Brazil.  

ALESSANDRO JACQUES RIBEIRO is a professor of the Graduate Program in Teaching and History of Science and Mathematics at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), Brazil. He was the president of the Brazilian Society of Mathematics Education (SBEM) (2013-2016). He received a PhD in Mathematics Education from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (2007) and two Postdoctoral fellowship, one from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA (2015) and the other from Institute of Education, University of Lisbon (2017). His academic experience is in the area of Mathematics, with emphasis on Mathematics Education, particularly focusing the following subjects: Mathematics Education, Algebraic Education and Teacher Training. He taught Mathematics in public and private schools in São Paulo for 10 years and acted as a trainer on continuing education programs for Mathematics teachers.
LULU HEALY holds a Chair in Mathematics Education at King’s College, London. From 2002-2017, she was based in São Paulo where she coordinated the research programme, Towards an Inclusive Mathematics Education, whose objective is to investigate the relations between experiences sensory and mathematical cognition and also to develop and evaluate learning scenarios for students with and without disabilities. She was also coordinator of the national working group on Difference, Inclusion and Mathematics Education of the Brazilian Society for Mathematics Education. Her interests focus on the challenges associated with the building of a more inclusive school mathematics and in understanding the mathematical practices of disabled and neurodivergent learners. She also researches the use of digital technologies in the teaching and learning of mathematics and the design of innovative ways of doing and expressing school mathematics.

RUTE ELIZABETE DE SOUZA ROSA BORBA is a professor of the Graduate Program in Mathematics and Technology Education at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil, leader of the Research Group on Combinatorial and Probabilistic Reasoning (Geração) at the same institution and was vice president of the Brazilian Society of Mathematics Education (SBEM) between 2010 and 2013. She is currently the coordinator of the working group focused on the study of mathematics education in kindergarten and elementary school. She received a master in Cognitive Psychology from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and a PhD in Mathematics Education from the Oxford Brookes University. Her research focuses on conceptual development (additive and multiplicative structures, particularly combinatorial and  probabilistic reasoning, and the role of meanings, properties, relations and symbolic representations in mathematical learning), textbooks analysis and initial and continuing education of teachers who teach Mathematics. She was a high school Mathematics teacher for 10 years.

Solange Hassan Ahmad Ali Fernandes is a professor of the Graduate Program in Mathematics Education at the Anhanguera University of São Paulo, Brazil. She received a PhD in Mathematics Education from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and her research focuses on understanding the relationships between the body and mathematical cognition of learners whose sensory or cognitive characteristics differ from what is considered the norm. Her studies focus on the material, technological and semiotic tools which mediate cognition and how these resources transform the processes of teaching and learning of those labeled as different. She is the first secretary of the Brazilian Society of Mathematics Education (SBEM) and was the president of the organizing committee of The 6th International Seminar of Research in Mathematics Education in Brazil.