How does mathematics education contribute to sustainable development?
Through knowledge, awareness, and practical action, schools are to prepare students to contribute to a sustainable future. This applies not least to mathematics education. In a research project, Lovisa Sumpter has explored how younger children think about and make sense of sharing resources.
Lovisa Sumpter. Photo: Sören Andersson.
Mathematics is an indispensable part of society, integrated into almost everything we do and everything around us. It has an enormous impact on us, often without us even being aware of it. Nearly all the decisions we make are based on some form of mathematical calculation, and every decision involves choices. These choices have consequences that we need to be aware of.
Like all other school subjects, mathematics education is expected to contribute to sustainable development. The definition that schools base their efforts on originates from Gro Harlem Brundtland’s report “Our Common Future”, which defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
“This definition leaves quite a lot of room for interpretation,” notes Lovisa Sumpter, Professor of Mathematics Education at the Department of Teaching and Learning. “There have also been many discussions about the purpose of mathematics in school. It is not only about basic applications such as addition, multiplication, and division. When it comes to sustainable development, for example, there are many ethical considerations and value-based judgments that need to be developed and taken into account.”
What have you investigated in the research project, and how can mathematics education contribute to sustainability thinking?
“In the research project Fair Share, we have investigated how younger children think about and making sense of resource distribution, from both a mathematical perspective and a sustainability perspective. Resource distribution is an interesting issue to study in this context, as it contributes to an understanding of sustainability from two interconnected perspectives—both of which depend on one another.”
The project’s aim has been to design mathematical tasks grounded in ethical reasoning linked to different situations, and then to study how children solve these tasks and what happens over time. An important guiding principle for us has been that the tasks should be open-ended, without a predetermined solution, and should encourage students to develop their own creative and problem-solving reasoning.
One example of a mathematical task that the children worked on together in a group was to divide four biscuits fairly among three stuffed animals. At first glance, this may seem like a simple task, but in this context, it triggers a range of different lines of reasoning and emotions among the children. One child may argue that the “large stuffed animal” should receive a larger share of the biscuits because it needs more food, while another may reason the opposite—that the “small stuffed animal” needs more in order to grow. Someone else may prefer a particular stuffed animal and therefore believe it should receive more. When we study the children’s thinking, we found that their solutions were highly varied and creative.
When mathematics is used in this way, it becomes very clear how closely mathematics and values are intertwined. Mathematics is by no means neutral or free from human values, as many mathematicians, philosophers, sociologists, and machine learning practitioners still argue today. By incorporating ethical reasoning into mathematics education, students’ engagement is activated in ways that develop their problem-solving competence. This can, in turn, facilitate discussions about ethics and human values across all domains and educational levels, from preschool to university.”
Are there any findings from your study that you have reflected on in particular — or that have surprised you?
“There are three aspects of the study that I have reacted to in particular. The first concerns how the children themselves described mathematics education. They see traditional mathematics tasks—such as applying addition, multiplication, and division—as a separate, distinct activity. In those situations, the teacher tells them what to do, and they do as instructed. The tasks involving biscuits and stuffed animals, however, were experienced as something entirely different. In those cases, the children themselves made the decisions and arrived at the solutions.
The second thing that surprised me was the level of engagement that emerged among so-called ‘quiet children.’ These are children who, for various reasons, tend to be silent in the school environment. Yet when we introduced mathematical tasks involving ethical reasoning, they suddenly began to speak up and reason through their solutions. It is incredibly moving to witness.
The third striking outcome is that since tasks involving ethical reasoning and distribution were introduced, teachers have noted that it has become easier to teach division, which is usually one of the most challenging areas of arithmetic. What these tasks manage to do is to frame the most central characteristics of distribution and how it differs from division. In division, the parts must be equal in size and distributed equally among each recipient, whereas distribution tasks can be approached in multiple ways. This has helped teachers highlight the very ‘core’ of division.”
What is important for teachers to keep in mind? How should they act to create an environment that stimulates students in the right way?
“I cannot stress enough how important it is to give students enough space to express their own thoughts and reasoning. As a teacher, it can be tempting to take over the reasoning process—to help them with the answer, guide them, or tell them what is right or wrong. I made the same mistake myself when I was a beginning high school teacher. In doing so, you miss the opportunity to guide students in their own reasoning and let them formulate different arguments for the decisions they make.
When it comes to ethical reasoning, there is no right or wrong—only solutions that are more or less appropriate. And it is precisely this knowledge and skill that is so important for students to develop. It helps them become active citizens who make informed choices based on processed and understood knowledge. With these skills, their ability to contribute to a sustainable future is greatly enhanced.”
Read more about Lovisa’s research
Last updated: 2026-01-23
Source: Department of Teaching and Learning