Related papers: On merit and equity in math
Research universities in the United States have larger mathematics faculties outside their mathematics departments than inside. Members of this "extensive" faculty conduct most mathematics research, their interests are the most heavily…
Peer review and citation metrics are two means of gauging the value of scientific research, but the lack of publicly available peer review data makes the comparison of these methods difficult. Mathematics can serve as a useful laboratory…
Kane and Mertz's 2012 AMS Notices article "Debunking Myths about Gender and Mathematics Performance" claims to have debunked the greater male variability hypothesis with respect to mathematics abilities. The logical and statistical…
The unity of mathematics has its power to compactify experiences in a form capable of being transferred and modified or adapted to new mathematical situations. Yet, we believe that the phrase "Unity of Mathematics" expresses a dream, an…
This article aims to show the weakness of the current scientific assessments, based on a set of contradictory pseudo-axioms. The six pseudo-axioms are deeply analysed. From the analysis are derived several conclusions. In spite of the…
In this paper, we situate the educational movement of "Ethics in Mathematics," as outlined by the Cambridge University Ethics in Mathematics Project, in the wider area of mathematics ethics education. By focusing on the core message coming…
In the last decade, major efforts have been made to promote inquiry-based mathematics learning at the tertiary level. The Inquiry-Based Mathematics Education (IBME) movement has gained strong momentum among some mathematicians, attracting…
We describe and explain the desire, common among mathematicians, both for unity and independence in its major themes. In the dialogue that follows, we express our spontaneous and considered judgment and reservations by contrasting the…
We argue that it is neither necessary nor sufficient for a mathematical proof to have epistemic value that it be "correct", in the sense of formalizable in a formal proof system. We then present a view on the relationship between…
Mathematics has become inescapable in modern, digitized societies: there is hardly any area of life left that isn't affected by it, and we as mathematicians play a central role in this. Our actions affect what others, in particular our…
We discuss how the concept of equality is used by mathematicians (including Grothendieck), and what effect this has when trying to formalise mathematics. We challenge various reasonable-sounding slogans about equality.
Experimental program review in our field may benefit from a more quantitative framework within which to quantitatively discuss the scientific merit of a proposed program of research, and to assess the scientific merit of a particular…
Across machine learning (ML) sub-disciplines researchers make mathematical assumptions to facilitate proof-writing. While such assumptions are necessary for providing mathematical guarantees for how algorithms behave, they also necessarily…
In this essay, I attempt to provide supporting evidence as well as some balance for the thesis on `Transforming socio-economics with a new epistemology' presented by Hollingworth and Mueller (2008). First, I review a personal highlight of…
I give a short introduction to data ethics. I begin with some background information and societal context for data ethics. I then discuss data ethics in mathematical-science education and indicate some available course material. I briefly…
In the past century many fundamental results on unpredictability, undecidability and uncertainty have compelled scientists to grapple with the idea that some questions may never be resolved within our current theories. While this…
The largely dominant meritocratic paradigm of highly competitive Western cultures is rooted on the belief that success is due mainly, if not exclusively, to personal qualities such as talent, intelligence, skills, efforts or risk taking.…
The ETS has recently released new estimates of validities of the GRE for predicting cumulative graduate GPA. They average in the middle thirties - twice as high as those previously reported by a number of independent investigators. It is…
Research framed around issues of diversity and representation is often controversial. The question of what constitutes a valid critique of such research, or the appropriate manner of airing such a critique, thus has a heavy ideological and…
This is an essay that considering the knowledge structure and language of a different nature, attempts to build on an explanation of the object of study and characteristics of the mathematical science. We end up with a learning cycle of…