Steen, L. A. (2001). The case for quantitative literacy. In L. A. Steen (Ed.), Mathematics and democracy: The case for quantitative literacy (pp. 1-22). Princeton, NJ: THE WOODROW WILSON NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP FOUNDATION.
Steen offers a brief history of quantitative literacy noting the concept belongs to the late twentieth century. However, she also falls into the trap of using numeracy anachronistically and one gets the idea that the word was actually being used in the nineteenth century:
"In colonial America, leaders such as Franklin and Jefferson promoted numeracy to support the new experiment in popular democracy, even as skeptics questioned the legitimacy of policy arguments based on empirical rather than religious grounds."
(p. 3)
While noting the contested nature of the term quantitative literacy, she uses numeracy and quantitative literacy interchangeably. Sometimes quantitative literacy was seen as related to statistics. The author rejects this and stakes a claim for quantitative literacy as a habit of mind and distinct from statistics or mathematics. However, she continues to use numeracy as a synonym for QL. One would have to say, however, that the argument that statistics is about uncertainty; whereas numeracy is about “the logic of certainty” (p. 5) is specious at best and betrays a fundamental lack of mathematical understanding.
Steen warns of the need for balance in connecting mathematics to authentic contexts as contextual details may in fact “camouflage broad patterns that are the essence of mathematics” (p.5). She also criticizes the way performance in abstract school mathematics has been traditionally use as an academic gatekeeper or measure of general academic performance and suggests that such pressures result in curricula that produces students who are unable to cope effectively with the numeracy demands of everyday life and work.
She raises a key point that numeracy should be since as a component of all subjects across the curriculum thus affording multiple contexts for making connections among mathematical ideas.
The article is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the statements are somewhat contradictory. For me, the idea that numeracy is about the "logic of certainty" is to put it mildly and very unacademically (which one can in the comment section) a load of bosh.
ReplyDelete