What Math Should Be Taught, Historically Considered, 1915–1955

• In Event: Reading Between the Lines: Curriculum, History, and Ideology

Abstract

Since at least the early twentieth century, math educators, educational leaders, and outside observers have quarreled about precisely what math content students should learn and at what age should students be introduced to new topics. Other broad questions have preoccupied practitioners and researchers for decades, including who should be responsible for setting academic expectations and standards, whether math instruction should forefront math facts and memorization or inquiry and problem solving, and how to ensure equity by raising the achievement of underperforming students. Our paper places current debates about academic standards within a historical perspective, by focusing research and writing about mathematics standards between the 1910s and the 1950s. Specifically, we look at examples of research from Washburne, Brownell, and Raths.

Authors

• David A. Gamson, Pennsylvania State University

• Laura E. Pirkle Howd, Pennsylvania State University