Mathematics
Education and Society
7th International Conference
2 - 7 April 2013
Cape Town, South
Africa
Third and Final Announcement
The MES 7 Conference is a forum for discussing the social, political, cultural and ethical dimensions of mathematics education. The Conference aims to bring together mathematics educators from around the world to disseminate research that explores these dimensions of mathematics education, to discuss theoretical and methodological issues related to research of this type, to foster international co-operation in the area, and to develop a strong research community interested in these dimensions. The residential nature of the conference, in which all participants reside at the same venue, is a key feature of MES conferences and is designed to encourage the development of such an interactional community.
Following previous conferences that took place in Nottingham (UK, 1998), Montechoro (Portugal, 2000), Helsingør (Denmark, 2002), Gold Coast (Australia, 2004), Albufeira (Portugal, 2008) and Berlin (Germany, 2010), we are now pleased to announce the 7th Mathematics Education and Society Conference (MES 7) in Cape Town, South Africa.
Information on MES1 to 5:- http://mes.crie.fc.ul.pt
Information on MES6:- http://www.ewi-psy.fu-berlin.de/en/v/mes6
The conference is jointly hosted by:|
University of the Witwatersrand |
University of Cape Town |
University of KwaZulu-Natal |
Rhodes
University
|
| (School of Education) | (Numeracy Centre) | (South African Numeracy Chair) | |
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|
 |
 |
Acknowledgement of financial support:
| We thank the South African Mathematics Foundation (SAMF) and The Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) at the University of Cape Town for underwriting the finances of this conference. |
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Venue and Conference Dates
.The
conference MES 7 will be held from the afternoon of Tuesday
2nd April to lunchtime on Sunday 7th
April
2013. Conference activities, accommodation of participants and
meals will be
held at the Cape Manor Hotel in Sea Point, Cape Town. The Cape
Manor Hotel is located on the promenade in the cosmopolitan
suburb of Sea Point and has views of both the Atlantic Ocean and Table
Mountain.For
more about the Cape Manor Hotel visit
http://www.premierhotels.co.za/locations/premier-hotel-cape-manor//
Airport transfers
Cape Manor Hotel is a 30-minute drive from Cape Town International Airport. The hotel is offering one-way airport transfers at a rate of R220 per person, for a delegate’s own account and payable on embarking. If you wish to make use of this transport to and/or from the conference, please email Fatima at fatima.saban@uct.ac.za with your flight details (by 13th March 2013). Alternatively, you can make use of other transfers available from the airport or use a metered taxi (Please see Transport and travel below for advice on using public transport in Cape Town).
Registration and checking in
Registration begins at 2pm on Tuesday 2nd April. Participants staying at Cape Manor Hotel can check in to the hotel from 1pm.
Please note that the delegate registration fee for the conference covers one soft drink per person at lunch and dinner and internet access for the five days of the conference. Additional beverages, phone calls, printing and copy costs (R2 per page) and laundry are for a delegate’s own account. When checking in, participants using the hotel accommodation will be required to produce a credit card or a deposit of R100 per day as surety for these potential costs.
Participants not staying over at Cape Manor will be welcomed each morning with coffee/tea and muffins. These participants will be required to pay upfront for all additional beverages.
Secure parking at the venue is available for R50 per day. On-street parking is available during the day, but we recommend the use of the hotel parking overnight.
Conference registration covers the costs of dinner on 2nd April to lunch on 7th April. Delegates wanting to stay at Cape Manor for additional nights should contact the hotel directly (at +27 21 4303400 or cmres@premierhotels.co.za ) and indicate that they are attending MES7.
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Programme
Following the general model of previous MES conferences, MES7 registration will take place on the afternoon of 2nd April, followed by the opening ceremony and the opening panel at 5pm. the conference will close at lunchtime on the 7th April.
The five days of the conference will follow the outline below. There will be four invited plenary sessions (including plenary responses), permanent discussion groups, symposia, papers and project presentations. The programme will be uploaded onto this website. Please contact the Programme Chair, Margot Berger, at mes7prog@wits.ac.za with queries regarding the programme. Papers for the conference will be available on this website prior to the conference, allowing participants to prepare for the discussions at the conference.
| Tues 2 | Wed 3 | Thurs 4 | Fri 5 | Sat 6 | Sun 7 |
|
Plenary 1 Disc. Groups Plenary Response |
Plenary 2 Disc. Groups Plenary Response |
Plenary 3 Disc. Groups Plenary Response |
Plenary 4 Disc. Groups Plenary Response |
Closing panel Closing |
|
|
Lunch |
Lunch |
Lunch |
Lunch |
Lunch |
|
|
Registration Opening Panel |
Papers Project Pres. Symposia |
Papers Project Pres. Symposia |
Excursion or Free afternoon
|
Papers Project Pres. Symposia |
Departure |
|
Dinner |
Dinner |
Dinner Agora 1 |
Dinner |
Dinner Agora 2 |
Plenary lectures and reactions
Dr Anna Chronaki, University
of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
Theme:
Identity in Mathematics Education
Title: Identity-work as a political space for change: The case of mathematics teaching through technology use.
 |
Anna Chronaki currently works at the Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Thessaly, and has been living in the city of Volos since 2001. Her research focuses on issues of theory and methodology in mathematics education and technology use, and has focused on the analysis of issues concerning communication, diversity and alternative design practices of mathematical learning activity. She has published in international journals such as Educational Studies in Mathematics, the European Journal of Educational Psychology, Computers and Education, Journal of Philosophy in Mathematics Education, and in refereed conference proceedings such as MES, PME, ISCAR and ΕΑRLI. She has authored a monograph on the 'Εpistemology of Constructivism' and has edited two books 'Challenging Perspectives on Mathematics Classroom Communication' (IAP_press) and 'Mathematics, Technology and the 'Body' of Education: Gendered perspectives' (UT_ press). She is a member of the editorial board of journals such as the International Journal of Media, Technology and Life Long Learning (www.seminar.net), the Journal Research in Mathematics Teaching (Kedros), the Journal Critical Sciences and Education (Nisos), and the web-journal Learning with Technologies (e-diktyo). |
Dr Zain Davis, University of
Cape Town, South Africa.
Theme: Sociological Analyses
of Mathematics Classrooms
Title: Constructing descriptions and analyses of mathematics constituted in pedagogic situations, with particular reference to an instance of addition over the reals.
 |
Zain Davis lectures in mathematics education in the School of Education at the University of Cape Town. He taught mathematics in a secondary school before moving to the Mathematics Education Project of the University of Cape Town, and then on to the School of Education. His chief current research interest is exploring the question of what comes to be constituted as mathematics in the pedagogic situations of elementary and secondary schooling. He draws on work in mathematics education, mathematics, semiotics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology and linguistics in his exploration of the constitution of school mathematics. |
Dr Tamsin Meaney, Malmö
University, Sweden
Theme: Multilingualism in
Mathematics Education.
 |
Although trained as a primary school teacher, Tamsin began her career teaching English for Specific Purposes courses in a Technical and Further Education college, usually in a team teaching situation with trade teachers. Having majored in mathematics in her primary teacher education course, she worked mostly in mathematics and science based courses. Since then she has retained a strong interest in language and mathematics issues. After working in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory of Australia, she completed her PhD in Auckland in New Zealand at the end of the nineties. Her longitudinal research with Tony Trinick and Uenuku Fairhall in the Mäori-immersion school where Uenuku is principal resulted in the publication of a book in Springer’s Mathematics Education Library. She has also collaborated with many other researchers and teachers. In recent years, some of her most interesting research has been done in collaboration with Troels Lange. |
Dr Swapna
Mukhopadhyay, Portland State university, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Theme: Critical Mathematics
Education.
Title: The mathematical practices of those without power.
 |
Born and raised in Calcutta, Swapna is a mathematics educator focusing on issues of critical mathematics education and cultural diversity. The main thrust of her work is in realizing that mathematics is a socially constructed mental tool that is accessible to all. Using the framework of ethnomathematics, she works towards unifying research and curriculum design, an act that is synonymous with activism. Widely traveled, she is currently a professor at the Graduate School of Education at Portland State University. She believes in alternative forms of knowledge and in validating the voices of people who are generally silent or deliberately not heard. She co-edited 'Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education' (2009). She is also a part-time potter. |
Working Groups
Groups will be set at the beginning of the conference and are expected to discuss the plenary lecture and the reactions. Each discussion group will produce a brief report detailing key questions or issues to be addressed by the speaker and reactors in the Plenary Response session.
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Symposia
There will be four symposia.
Symposium Title: The social function of mathematics examination questions
Heather Mendick - Brunel University, London, UK; Candia Morgan and Cathy Smith - Institute of Education, London, UK
Symposium Title: Exploring the relationship between in-service mathematics teacher support and retention
Mellony Graven - SA Numeracy Chair, Rhodes University, South Africa; Barbara Pence, Susie Hakansson and Peter Pausigere - The California Maths Project, San Jose, USA.
Symposium Title: Understanding the prevalence of concrete working with number across teaching and learning in Foundation Phase
Hamsa Venkat and Lynn Bowie - University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Symposium Title: Teaching mathematics for social justice: Conversations with educators
Coordinators: David W. Stinson - Georgia State University, USA; Anita A. Wager- University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Presenters: Tonya Gau Bartell - Michigan State University, USA; Brian R. Evans - Pace University, USA; Eric (Rico) Gutstein - University of Illinois, Chicago, USA; Jacqueline Leonard - University of Wyoming, USA
Discussants: Victoria Hand - University of Colorado-Boulder, USA; Joi Spencer - University of San Diego, USA
Paper Discussion Sessions
Thirty-two peer-reviewed papers will be discussed. The full text of accepted papers will be posted on the conference’s website.
In keeping with the spirit of MES, the aim of a Research Paper session is to enable in depth discussion by all participants of issues raised by the presenters. In order to make this possible, the papers are published on the website in advance of the conference and participants are asked to read them before attending each session. Presenters can thus assume that those present at the session have read the relevant papers.
Sets of three papers have, as far as possible, been grouped together according to common themes. A two-hour session is provided for each set of papers to be presented and discussed. We suggest that each two-hour session (to be managed by a Chair) be conducted as follows:
• each presenter has no more than 10 minutes to identify the key issues in his/her paper, followed by 10 minutes for questions;
• when all three papers have been presented, there should be 60 minutes for common discussion of the issues arising from the three papers.
Project presentation discussion sessions
These project presentations are shorter/work-in-progress reports of projects of theoretical, empirical or developmental character. Ten peer-reviewed papers will be discussed. The full text of accepted papers will be posted on the conference’s website.
In keeping with the spirit of MES, the aim of a Project Presentation Session is to enable in depth discussion by all participants of issues raised by the presenters. In order to make this possible, the project presentation papers are published on the website in advance of the conference and participants are asked to read them before attending each session. Presenters can thus assume that that those present at the session have read the relevant papers.
Sets of three project presentations have, as far as possible, been grouped together according to common themes. A two-hour session is provided for each set to be presented and discussed. We suggest that each two-hour session (to be managed by a Chair) be conducted as follows:
• each presenter has no more than 10 minutes to identify the key issues in his/her paper, followed by 10 minutes for questions;
• when all three papers have been presented, there should be 60 minutes for common discussion of the issues arising from the three papers.
Agora
There are two evenings dedicated to an open, informal exchange of ideas on the nature and future of the MES community and conferences.
Equipment
All venues will be equipped with a data projector and a laptop (with Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010). You can, of course, attach your own laptop to the data projector.
Please ask us in advance (by 28 February 2013) if you have other equipment requirements, and we will do our best to provide what you need.
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Registration
Registration is now closed
Please note that those delegates who have been contacted regarding small outstanding fees (usually related to bank charges) must pay the outstanding balance (the exact amount in cash) at the conference registration on 2nd April.
All
participation fees include
conference registration, a set of
printed proceedings, five lunches and five dinners at the Cape Manor
Hotel. Evening dinner is included in the registration fee, thus
allowing all delegates to participate in the interactional community
that a MES conference offers. The participation fees exclude airport
transfers, alcoholic beverages, and parking at the venue. The venue
offers a competitive rate for airport transfers (more details of costs
will be given in the Third Announcement).
Early Bird Registration Fees (1st July 2012 to 22nd October 2012)
Participation, dinner, accommodation (single) and breakfast: R9 700 per person
Participation, dinner, accommodation (sharing) and breakfast: R7 400 per person
Participation and dinner/no accommodation: R4 700 per person
Accompanying person (dinner, accommodation (sharing), breakfast): R3 900 per person
Late Registration Fees (23rd October 2012 to 30th November 2012)
Participation, dinner, accommodation (single) and breakfast: R9 950 per person
Participation, dinner, accommodation (sharing) and breakfast: R7 700 per person
Participation and dinner/no accommodation: R5 000 per person
Accompanying person (dinner, accommodation (sharing), breakfast): R4 200 per person
All bank charges (both in sending from your account and receiving into the conference account) will be for your account.
Cancellations
Given the running costs for the conference organization and the conditions of the contract with the conference venue, the following are the conditions regarding cancellation by a delegate:
• R1 600 of paid registration fee (+ bank charges for transfer) is deducted for cancellations by 24th February 2013.
• No refunds are possible from 25th February 2013.
Should the conference organizers have to cancel the conference due to circumstances beyond their control after 24th February 2013, no refunds will be paid. Again, this is due to contractual conditions with the venue.
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Transport and travel in Cape Town and South Africa
Exchanging money
Delegates who need to exchange money are advised to do this at Cape Town International Airport before travelling to the hotel. Money can also be exchanged at the Standard Bank in Sea Point (approximately five blocks from Cape Manor Hotel) and at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (the “Waterfront Bus”, which travels along Beach Road, can be used to travel to the V&A Waterfront for approximately R10). Money can be exchanged at Cape Manor Hotel, but at a higher rate than at banks. ATMs are available in Sea Point, at the V&A Waterfront and elsewhere in the city.
Cape Town weather
April falls in the Cape Town autumn, and this time of year is known for its sunny, windless days and mild temperatures (min 12°C to max 25°C). Days are still reasonably long, with sunrise about 7am and sunset about 6.30pm. However, since the wet winter is on its way, we can experience cold and wet weather in April. We thus advise delegates to come prepared for both sunny and cool, rainy weather.
Getting around Cape Town
The public transport system in Cape Town is poor, but improving slowly. We recommend the following basic tips for getting around, but also encourage delegates to ask local conference participants or the hotel reception if they have any queries in this regard:
• When walking in Sea Point and the Cape Town City Centre during the day, try not to carry large amounts of cash, equipment such as laptops, expensive cameras etc. Any necessities should not be easily visible. We recommend that you do not walk around at night (unless in a large group).
• Cape Town has two types of taxis – metred taxis and minibus taxis. We recommend that you avoid the minibus taxis as safety in these vehicles cannot be guaranteed. Metred taxis are more expensive, but the industry is better regulated.
• South African drivers are generally not good at heeding pedestrian crossings, so please use these crossings cautiously.
More about travel in Cape Town and South Africa
Conference participants and accompanying persons staying at Cape Manor can enjoy walks on the promenade, and the hotel is within close proximity to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (gateway to Robben Island) and to the Cape Town city centre.
The “Waterfront Bus”, which travels along Beach Road, can be used to travel to the V&A Waterfront for approximately R10. The Hop-on Hop-off Cape Town bus tours, an affordable way to see the sites of the city, also have a pick up spot within two minutes’ walk of Cape Manor (http://www.citysightseeing.co.za).
The following tourism sites are a good starting point for delegates planning to spend longer in South Africa:
• Cape Town Tourism: http://www.capetown.travel/
• South African Tourism: http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/landing/visitor-home
We really like these tips on responsible tourism in Cape Town: http://www.capetown.travel/content/page/responsible-tourism
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Organising Committee
MES 7 International Advisory Board (in alphabetical order)
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Contacting the Organising Committee
Registration and accommodation queries:
Kate le Roux
| Address: | MES7 Conference |
| Numeracy Centre | |
| Hoerikwaggo | |
| University of Cape Town | |
| Rondebosch, Private Bag #3, 7701 | |
| South Africa | |
| Phone: | +27 21 650 3707 |
| Email: | kate.leroux@uct.ac.za |
Programme queries:
Margot Berger
| Address: | School of Education |
| Wits University | |
| 27 St Andrews Road | |
| Parktown, 2050 | |
| South Africa | |
| Phone: | +27 11 717 3411 |
| Fax: | +27 11 717 3009 |
| Email: | mes7prog@wits.ac.za |
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