Gender Mainstreaming of Adult Mathematics Education: Opportunities and Challenges

Mainstreaming as a strategy for equality has been widely adopted by the international community. Mainstreaming of adult mathematics education entails that gender, ethnicity, social class and other difference defining categories are included consciously and explicitly in all activities. A growing body of research explore how pluralism and multiculturalism in mathematics education affect mathematical understanding, attitudes and participation. Gender mainstreaming investigates how cultural and economic factors influence the formation of female and male differences in these areas. In adult mathematics education curriculum, context, instruction and values have a gender dimension that should be acknowledged in teaching, planning and research. Likewise gender should be taken into account in statistics and surveys on adult numeracy. To mainstream successfully means to gather knowledge, analyse processes and suggest changes where necessary. Actual gender mainstreaming of adult mathematics education is not on the agenda anywhere today, but current knowledge on mathematics education points to a number of research questions and to knowledge gaps that have to be filled. Gender mainstreaming is but one aspect of the general mainstreaming strategy that encompasses other difference defining categories; hence research on adults learning mathematics must cut across borders of gender, ethnicity, age and social class. Creating a new and more adequate frame of analysis is a challenge to research in adult mathematics education. Gender mainstreaming is a principle that means bringing gender thinking into the main stream--into all decision making and organizational (…) work. Many have used the image of gender equality as something that flows in its own tributary. Through gender mainstreaming, equal opportunities are brought into the main stream--i.e. the ordinary organizational and political efforts. (Resolution on equal opportunities. The Danish Trade Union Movement 2003).