The 11th International Conference on Mathematics Education (ICME-11) will take place on July 6-13, 2008, in Monterrey, N.L., México. The scientific program for the congress contemplates various types of activities, the main ones being: Plenary Sessions, Survey Teams, Topic Study Group, Discussion Groups and Regular Lectures.

Survey Team 2 is concerned with: Challenges to mathematics education research faced by developing countries. The members of Survey Team 2 are: Li Jun from China, Hikma Smida from Tunisia, Mónica Villarreal from Argentina, Nerida Ellerton from USA, and Marcelo Borba from Brazil, who is the group’s chair.

Mathematics education researchers in developing countries face a variety of issues of priority, opportunities, and problems, such as: the balance between relevance and quality in research; access to financial and human resources to conduct research; methodologies that are appropriate with respect to cultural diversity and societal needs; and environmental, health, and nutrition factors that influence mathematics education.

Survey Team 2 invites YOU to help us identify and explore major challenges to mathematics education research in developing countries, as well as attempts to deal with them. The results will be reported in a regular lecture at ICME-11 and published in the conference Internet page.

It would be extremely helpful for us if you can collaborate by answering a set of questions for us. This should take no more THAN 10 MINUTES. Your answers will permit us to prepare a report about the state of art of mathematics education research in your country. We would like to be able to present reports from a wide range of both developed and developing countries. We therefore invite you to respond regardless of the country in which you work, and would appreciate it if you could send your answers to [email protected] or to [email protected] before January 25th, 2008.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you know of a mathematics education researcher who may not have received this message, please forward it on to him or her.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ANSWER ONLY THOSE QUESTIONS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT UPON!

1. Please indicate if you would like to have your name listed as one of the persons who answered the questionnaire or if we should keep your name confidential.

2. Are there specific purposes of mathematics education research in your country (please name your country)? What are these purposes?

3. On what issues does mathematics education research focus in your country (teaching and learning processes, curriculum, thinking processes, cultural factors, psychological factors, etc.)?

4. What kind of funding for research is available in your country?

5. To what extent are the findings of mathematics education research in your country implemented in schools and other settings?

6. What are the challenges of doing mathematics education research in developing countries?