IOWME Report 1992-1996

At Quebec ICME 7, a new Convenor, a new Newsletter Editor and an Advisory Board for Convenor and Newsletter Editor was elected:

The following tasks were set up for the Convenor:

1. Continuing IOWME activities:

1.1. Making IOWME more widely known, in particular in those countries which are not represented within IOWME as, e.g., former socialist countries, South-East Asian, South-American and African countries. 1.2. Establishing and maintaining contact to National Coordinators of the member countries and to organisations which are connected to or are affiliated to IOWME (MOIFEM, Ada Byron, Femmes et Math, European Women and Mathematics etc.).

2. Designing a constitution for IOWME

2.1. Discussing various models for a constitution of IOWME. Discussion point: national or personal membership. 2.2. Role and status of Convenor, Newsletter Editor and Advisory Board of IOWME. 2.3. Role of the National Coordinators, possible connections to international or national organisations or associations and to ICMI.

3. Preparation of IOWME conferences

3.1. Participation in the steering committee and International Program Committee of the ICMI-study conference 1993, to be held in Hoeoer (Sweden). 3.2. Developing a conference structure, an organisational scheme and subthemes/working groups for the IOWME-sessions at ICME 8

1. Continuing IOWME activites

IOWME and Convenor's activities 1992-1993:

As the main activities of IOWME in these years were concerned with the ICMI Study Conference on "Gender and Mathematics Education", directed by the former Convenor of IOWME and Chair of the ICMI Study, Gila Hanna, the new Convenor actually commenced in 1994.

Convenor's activities 1994-1996:

Activities to inform about and to present IOWME around the world, i.e. IOWME - presentations at various conferences in Australasia, Europe, South Africa, USA

• Presentation of IOWME at the SAARMSE (Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics and Science Education) conference, Durban (South Africa)
• National Meeting of "Femmes et Math", Lyon (France)
• Invited speaker at the Workshop on "Women and Maths" at the Universities of Pavia and Parma (Italy)
• Plenary speaker at the National Conference of the Organizacion Espanola para la Coeducacion Matematica "Ada Byron" Madrid (Spain)
• Participation in sessions on "Gender and maths" at the AERA meeting in New Orleans (USA) (Discussion and work with IOWME-members from USA, England, Australia, Canada (i.e. Fennema, Becker, Leder, Burton, Barnes et al.)
• IOWME officers meeting at the ICMI-Study on "What is Research in Mathematics Education and What are Its Results?" in College Park, Maryland (USA) (A. Kristjansdottir, Roberta Mura)

1995:

• Meeting of IOWME members at the ICMI - Regional Study on Collaboration in Mathematics Education in Melbourne (Australia)
• Presentations of IOWME at various visits to Australian and New Zealand universities (e.g. Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington) (which had a positive effect on the participation and contribution to IOWME-sessions at ICME 8)
• Section on Gender Problems at CIEAEM 47 (WG)
• Conference of the organisation of EWM (European Women in Mathematics) in Madrid
  

• Participation in sessions on "Gender and maths" at the AERA meeting in New York (Discussion and work with IOWME-members from USA, Australia, the Netherlands (i.e. Becker, Fennema, Leder, Forgasz, van Heuvel-Panhuizen))
• Invitation of the Swedish group on "Women and Mathematics" in April for a Nordic conference in Gothenborg, lecture on "International perspectives of mathematics education".

2. Working on a Constitution for IOWME

In various letters to the Newsletter Editor for publication, to the Advisory Board and to the National Coordinators, the Convenor has tried to set up a lively discussion on the particular problems of a formal constitution for IOWME. Only few colleagues have responded, among them Roberta Mura, Lesley Jones, Teresa Smart, Leone Burton, Helga Jungwirth, Gilah Leder, Helen Forgasz, Maria Jesus Luelmo, Josette Adda, Claudie Solar. The communication has been disrupted by the lack of Newsletter issues and the preparation of the IOWME-sessions at ICME 8. There was no feedback from National Coordinators apart from those of the UK, France, Spain and Canada. There did not seem to be a great deal of interest or an urgent need to address the question of designing a constitution and it proved impossible to agree on the type of membership which was appropriate.

3. Designing an IOWME Program at ICME 8

A circular letter including a "Call for Papers" was first sent out in November 1994 and revised in February 1995. The Convenor received feedback and proposals for a possible structure of the IOWME-sessions from Leone Burton (UK), Helga Jungwirth (Austria), Lesley Jones (UK), Teresa Smart (UK), Roberta Mura (Canada). This led to a second "Call for Papers" with a scheme for the sessions and themes for subgroups which was distributed by the Convenor in November 1995 and printed in the 3rd Newsletter in February 1996.

In January 1996, a meeting of the Program Committee for the IOWME sessions at ICME 8 was held in Berlin, financed by the Free University of Berlin. M.J. Luelmo, Eugenia Jimenez, M. Carmen Rodriguez, Fidela Velazquez (all Spain), Lesley Jones, Teresa Smart (UK), Gabriele Kaiser (Germany) as organiser of IOWME sessions at ICME 7, Barbro Grevholm (Sweden) as Chair of the WG 6 "Gender and Mathematics Education" of ICME 8, together with the Convenor, had agreed to be members of the Program Committee.

In May and June 1996, the Convenor was kept busy collecting and editing all the extended abstracts of submitted contributions for IOWME sessions as well as for WG 6 of ICME 8. Between June and July 1996, the Spanish translation and editing of all the abstracts was completed by Maria Jesus Luelmo and Eugenia Jimenez with the additonal help of Adela Salvador-Alcaide, the secretary of "Ada Byron". The final booklet containing the full program and the extended abstracts in English and Spanish was printed in July (with support from the Gobierno de Canaris, the European Social Funds, the Organizacion Espanola para la Coeducacion Matematica"Ada Byron") and distributed to all participants of IOWME sessions and WG6 of ICME 8.

The programme of the IOWME sessions was devoted to the celebration of 20 years of IOWME and therefore had the title: IOWME - 20 years of cooperative research on gender and mathematics. Where we are - where we go?

The three sessions were organised according to the following schedule:

Plenary session (July 16). Keynote speakers: J. Rossi-Becker (USA), Claudie Solar (Canada), Gelsa Knijnik (Brazil), Sue Willis (Australia)

Working group sessions: (July 17 and July 20). Group A: Conceptualisation of mathematics (Chair: Diane Resek); Group B: Co-education - pupils and teacher's perspectives (Chair: Teresa Smart); Group C: Social and Cultural influences (Chair: Lesley Jones); Group D: Policy issues (Chair: Gilah Leder); Group E: Research methodology and theories (Chair: Gabriele Kaiser)

The booklet of extended abstracts in both conference languages was, distributed to session participants, was considered by all participants as the important and effective basis and means for discussion and collaborative work in the IOWME--sessions and, in particular, for the intensive work in the subgroups. We have planned to publish the contributions to the IOWME sessions in an international publication "Social justice and mathematics education", edited by Christine Keitel, Maria Jesus Luelmo, and Teresa Smart.

On July 17, 1996, a business-meeting of IOWME was held at ICME 8 in Sevilla. IOWME succeeded in establishing contact with colleagues in the former socialist countries, Russia, Estonia and Poland, as well as to colleagues in some of the countries in South America: Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Teresa Smart (UK) was elected as the new Convenor of IOWME. Lisbeth Lindberg (Sweden) and Lesley Jones (UK) were elected to jointly act as the new Newsletter Editors. Sharleen Forbes (New Zealand) and Barbro Grevholm (Sweden) agreed to work in the new Advisory Board for IOWME.