[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-588576-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-588576-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","peoples-mathematics-in-working-life-why-is-it-invisible","People’s mathematics in working life - Why is it invisible?","","Labour market demands shape political and educational rationales for teaching adults mathematics, yet everyday work practice often shows a paradoxical invisibility of mathematics. Many adults report not using mathematics at work because they do not recognize mathematical ideas within workplace routines, and they primarily associate mathematics with school. Adult mathematics study is then driven by proving learning ability and supporting children, creating a second relevance paradox between societal motives and individual motives.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/peoples-mathematics-in-working-life-why-is-it-invisible/588576/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/peoples-mathematics-in-working-life-why-is-it-invisible/588576.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Rizky","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why do politicians and planners emphasize teaching mathematics to adults?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Labour market requirements and societal “key competencies” justify adult mathematics education, linking mathematics to technological and socio-economic development as well as broader cultural and political goals.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What causes the first relevance paradox about mathematics at work?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Mathematics is treated as an objective, visible tool in policy and education, but it disappears in workplace routines because adults do not recognize mathematics in their daily activities as mathematics.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How is the second relevance paradox related to adults’ motives for studying mathematics?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Society offers adult mathematics education for specific reasons, but individuals’ motives differ, often focusing on proving they can learn mathematics and helping children with homework rather than the societal rationale.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},588576,1792189288,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":115,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962085564807,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","People’s mathematics in working life:  \nWhy is it invisible?  \nTine Wedege  \nSchool of Teacher Education, Malmö University  \nMalmö, Sweden  \n\u003C[tine.wedege@mah.se](tine.wedege@mah.se)>  \nAbstract  \nThe labour market requirements play a central role in the answer from politicians and educational planners to the question “Why teach mathematics to adults?” Mathematics is interwoven with technology in the workplace- in technique, work organisation and people’s competences. Still “No”is the most common answer to the question “Do you use mathematics in your work?” This leads to one relevance paradox.– Mathematics as a visible tool disappears in many workplace routines. However, this kind of invisibility is not the only reason for the negative answer. People simply do not recognize the mathematics in their daily practice – as mathematics. They do not connect the everyday activity and their own competence with mathematics. Most of them only associate mathematics with the school subject. Hence the two main answers to the question “Why do adults study mathematics?”are proving to yourself that you can learn the mathematics that you did not learn in school and being able to help your children with their homework. This leads to a second relevance paradox.  \nKey words: adult education, justification, lifelong learning, mathematics in work, special needs education.  \nLifelong education  \nIn the European countries, the right and the obligation concerning education does not stop with childhood and youth but also includes adult life. The idea of lifelong learning has left its mark and adult education programmes are prioritised in educational and labour market policies. In adult and continuing education there seems to be two parallel and combined processes going on: an institutionalizing process adding schools for adults to the schools for children and adolescents, and ade-institutionalizing process with a focus on adults’ learning processes outside schools (Wedege, 2004b) . In various policy reports, the so-called “key competencies” and “basic skills” are identified and appropriate educational responses to societal demands for qualifications are postulated. As one of the basic skills,“mathematics”,“mathematical literacy” or “numeracy” is among top 5 on the subject list in the educational programmes. Among the reasons for offering lifelong mathematics education, we recognize the economy to be decisive at the political level; technological development in the labour market is the main reason for demanding mathematics education for all. However, in this context, people’s everyday competences do not count as mathematics (FitzSimons, 2002) . Mathematics is to a large extent invisible in people’s everyday life and they do not feel it relevant to study mathematics. One of the reasons is that people experience themselves as competent in their jobs without being aware of how mathematics plays a role in their activity (Wedege, 1999; Wedege & Evans, 2006) . Thus, mathematics education is experienced by the learners as a field of tension between felt needs concerning what one wants to learn – or has to learn – and various constraints from society and the labour market (Wedege & Evans, 2006) .  \nIn the article, I discuss why people’s mathematics in work is invisible and present two relevance paradoxes connected to this phenomenon. The first paradox is related to reasons for  \nVolume 5( 1)– June 2010 89  \nteaching mathematics to adults. It is about the objective relevance of mathematics in society versus the subjectively experienced irrelevance. The second paradox is related to adults’ reasons for studying mathematics. It is about the discrepancy between societal reasons for offering mathematics education to adults and individual motives for learning mathematics. In this context, the term adults refer to people with workplace experiences and short formal educational stories.  \nWhy teach mathematics to adults?  \nAs mentioned mathematics is among top 5 on the su","cbCaifzdXw7frvGx","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifzdXw7frvGx","pdf",717719,"English","# Abstract\n# Lifelong education\n# Why teach mathematics to adults?\n# Relevance paradoxes","[{\"question\":\"Why do politicians and planners emphasize teaching mathematics to adults?\",\"answer\":\"Labour market requirements and societal “key competencies” justify adult mathematics education, linking mathematics to technological and socio-economic development as well as broader cultural and political goals.\"},{\"question\":\"What causes the first relevance paradox about mathematics at work?\",\"answer\":\"Mathematics is treated as an objective, visible tool in policy and education, but it disappears in workplace routines because adults do not recognize mathematics in their daily activities as mathematics.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the second relevance paradox related to adults’ motives for studying mathematics?\",\"answer\":\"Society offers adult mathematics education for specific reasons, but individuals’ motives differ, often focusing on proving they can learn mathematics and helping children with homework rather than the societal rationale.\"}]","People’s mathematics in working life - Why is it invisible? | PDF",1792065525,23]