ICMI in the 1950s and 1960s: The internationalization process and the emergence of Mathematics Education as a research discipline

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the evolution of the objectives and fields of action of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) in the period from its reconstitution as a permanent subcommission of the newly refounded International Mathematical Union (IMU) in 1952 to the presidency of Hans Freudenthal (1967–1970), who impressed a real turning point in the Commission’s activities. This period was crucial in the life of ICMI because of the need to better define its status as a subcommission and the concomitant events in politics, technology, research and society. The new ICMI as a subcommission of IMU depended on it both for the choice of members of the Executive Committee and for funding. The lack of precise Terms of Reference to regulate the relations between the two bodies produced friction that arose mainly from ICMI’s desire for greater independence from IMU. Furthermore, the Commission’s old agenda, which placed emphasis mainly on curricula issues and organizational aspects of mathematics teaching in the various countries, was now outdated. In this paper we will focus in particular on the contributions of presidents Marshall H. Stone and André Lichnerowicz and their efforts to broaden the scope of ICMI both geographically and in terms of the agenda. We will also try to show how awareness of the weaknesses of the Commission progressively identified by the various presidents led to ICMI’s Renaissance. Finally, we will outline the main steps of the emergence of mathematics education as a new research field. Our research is based on a selection of unpublished letters and documents belonging to the period 1952–1974 (from the IMU Archive and others), which made it possible to highlight unknown or lesser-known aspects of the history of ICMI.