This Chapter analyses the evolution of ICMI after its establishment in 1952 as a subcommission of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The changes in society and research, and movements such as New Math, made evident the need for new paradigms for approaching the problems of mathematical instruction. The collaboration with international bodies such as UNESCO and OEEC/OECD fostered new initiatives in every continent. The three main lines of investigation chosen to study the history of ICMI in the twenty years after WWII are the following: the relationships between IMU and ICMI, which often resulted in the relationships between professional mathematicians and educators; the emergence of mathematics education as an academic discipline; and the change in the ICMI’s objectives. These occur in a transversal way in the work of the various Executive Committees that came after each other in this period. However, it was only under the presidency of Hans Freudenthal, who launched two important initiatives – a journal and a tradition of conferences specifically dedicated to mathematics education – that the concomitance of these three aspects ushered a new season for ICMI. This chapter is largely based on the unpublished documents coming from different archives, especially from the IMU Archives in Berlin.
ICMI in the 1950s and 1960s: Reconstruction, Settlement, and “Revisiting Mathematics Education”
F. Furinghetti
;L. Giacardi
2022-01-01
Abstract
This Chapter analyses the evolution of ICMI after its establishment in 1952 as a subcommission of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The changes in society and research, and movements such as New Math, made evident the need for new paradigms for approaching the problems of mathematical instruction. The collaboration with international bodies such as UNESCO and OEEC/OECD fostered new initiatives in every continent. The three main lines of investigation chosen to study the history of ICMI in the twenty years after WWII are the following: the relationships between IMU and ICMI, which often resulted in the relationships between professional mathematicians and educators; the emergence of mathematics education as an academic discipline; and the change in the ICMI’s objectives. These occur in a transversal way in the work of the various Executive Committees that came after each other in this period. However, it was only under the presidency of Hans Freudenthal, who launched two important initiatives – a journal and a tradition of conferences specifically dedicated to mathematics education – that the concomitance of these three aspects ushered a new season for ICMI. This chapter is largely based on the unpublished documents coming from different archives, especially from the IMU Archives in Berlin.
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