This doctoral dissertation is situated within the field of mathematics education, which, as a scientific and academic field, addresses various aspects of learning and teaching mathematics. In this dissertation, we examined mathematics education as a field and analysed it through the content of professional and scientific publications and pedagogical discourse.
In the theoretical framework, we defined the field of mathematics education, outlined its historical development, and provided a theoretical analysis of the influence of theoretical paradigms that have emerged throughout the history of pedagogy on the understanding of learning and teaching in specific periods. Drawing on the conceptualisations of both international and Slovenian experts, we conducted an in-depth analysis and problematisation of the positioning of value polarisations in pedagogical discourse and examined the understandings of learning and teaching that they entail.
Based on the theoretical framework, we designed a three-part original empirical study to provide insight into the content of scholarly publications in mathematics education and to analyse guidelines for learning and teaching within the context of value polarisations.
In the first part of the empirical study, we used a systematic approach, using two leading bibliographic databases, Scopus and Web of Science, to identify existing empirical studies that analysed large numbers of publications on mathematics learning and teaching from a content perspective. Using a qualitative research approach, we examined 12 such empirical studies, which collectively analysed more than 15,200 different publications from 1968 to 2021. Through qualitative content analysis, we developed an empirically grounded synthesis of central themes in mathematics education. This synthesis comprises 21 central themes across four major content areas: the cognitive dimension, teaching, differences among students, and the education system. In this part of the empirical study, we also synthesised findings on how individual central themes have been addressed over the past five decades in the international context, thereby illustrating historical changes and trends in empirical research in mathematics education.
In the second part of the empirical study, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of 533 publications on mathematics learning and teaching in Slovenia from 1972 to 2024. We analysed the sample according to central themes, based on the synthesis identified in the first part of the empirical study. We also examined the publications in terms of the mathematical content addressed, educational level, and adult groups. For six time periods (up to 2000, 2000–2004, 2005–2009, 2010–2014, 2015–2019, 2020–2024), we present the proportions of publications corresponding to each of the 27 central themes, 10 mathematical content areas, six educational levels, and 10 adult groups. This part of the study provides the first empirical insight into the content of Slovenian publications in mathematics education over the past five decades, identifying historical trends as well as prominent themes (e.g. teaching materials and aids, knowledge) and rarely addressed themes (e.g. teacher education and pedagogical research).
In the final part of the empirical study, we carried out qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis to examine and critically assess guidelines for learning and teaching mathematics in Slovenian publications, in the context of value polarisations. Based on the results, we identified three main groups of value polarisations: 1) understandings of learning, 2) the shift from teaching to learning, and 3) different teaching methods. In doing so, we provided the first empirically grounded classification of value polarisations in mathematics education in Slovenia, demonstrated that guidelines for learning and teaching, in the context of value polarisations, transition from scientific to ideological discourse, and outlined starting points for overcoming these polarisations.
In our doctoral dissertation, we presented numerous empirically supported findings, including the observation that mathematics education in Slovenia has developed significantly in recent decades, particularly regarding the number of publications and the diversity of themes addressed. Through the three-part study, we further demonstrate that mathematics education is a dynamic, humanistic, and social science field, influenced not only by professional and scientific considerations within the field but also by socio-political circumstances. During our research, we reached important methodological conclusions, namely that a comprehensive study of central themes in mathematics education must consider both the context of the publications (national or international) and the differences between individual types of documents (journal articles, theses, conference papers). The results obtained in all three parts of the empirical study enable the formulation of scientifically grounded proposals for the further development of mathematics education and its study.
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