Commentary on Theories of Mathematics Education

<strong>Commentary</strong> 3 on Feminist Pedagogy
and Mathematics
Guðbjörg Pálsdóttir and Bharath Sriraman
Das Geschlecht ist schwer; ja. Aber es ist Schweres, was uns
aufgetragen wurde, fast alles Ernste ist schwer, und alles ist
Ernst (http://www.rilke.de/briefe/160703.htm)
Gender is difficult; yes. But there are difficult things that we’ve
been given to do; nearly everything serious is difficult, and
everything is serious (Our translation of the quote taken from
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet found at the URL
listed above)
...thingswhichhumanizeusarenotalwayseasy,indeed,are
rarely so; there is no cutting corners (Michael Fried).
In this commentary to Jacobs’ chapter, we discuss the issue of gender and mathematics
teaching, learning and achievement within the Icelandic context. Our motivation
for writing this commentary together is that we believe there can perhaps be an androgynous
view of the gender debate, namely a position that is not dichotomous or
as contentious as many make it out to be, atleast in relation to the culture of Iceland.
Having familiarity with studies related to gender and mathematics in Iceland
and having participated in research in this area (Palsdottir 2008; Steinthorsdottir and
Sriraman 2007, 2008), we have arrived at complementary views of the situation in
Iceland and use this to put forth an androgynous view of the teaching and learning
of mathematics. We hope that our views are applicable in other contexts but this is
left to the reader to judge.
In the Shadow of PISA 2003 in Iceland
Students’ mathematical achievement reported in the 2003 Programme for International
Student Assessment (henceforth PISA 2003), was a popular news item in the
G. Pálsdóttir ()
School of Education, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
e-mail: gudbj@hi.is
B. Sriraman
Department of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, USA
e-mail: sriramanb@mso.umt.edu
B. Sriraman, L. English (eds.), Theories of Mathematics Education,
Advances in Mathematics Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-00742-2_44, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
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