Springer’s Fourth International Handbook of Mathematics Education: An Introduction to Thinking About “Colonizers” and “the Colonized”

The five editors of this Fourth International Handbook of Mathematics Education (HB4) reside in Singapore (Berinderjeet Kaur), Australia (Ken Clements and Thomas Lowrie), the United States (Vilma Mesa), and Sweden (Johan Prytz). In this introductory chapter, meanings given to the concept “colonization” are discussed, with that concept being interpreted beyond purely historical and geographical contexts. One of the aims of HB4 is to investigate controversial issues in mathematics education, and four areas of contemporary literature in the field—“Mathematics Education in Asia,” “The Roles of Theory in Research and Practice,” “Equity and Social Justice,” and “Curriculum and Change”—are dealt with in uncompromising ways. Throughout HB4, a past-present-future balance has been consciously maintained in each of the four main sections.