Ebook: Shifting contexts, stable core : advancing quantitative literacy in higher education

In building upon previous MAA and Numeracy (the journal dedicated to QL) publications, the intent of this volume is to share insights and revelations with the MAA community concerning how the QL community has evolved (and is continuing to do so) since this volume’s predecessor Current Practices in Quantitative Literacy. The theme we take up in this collection is Shifting Contexts, Stable Core, the idea being that while the construct of quantitative literacy has remained relatively stable over recent years, the application of this construct remains transient. For example, since the 2001 publication of Mathematics and Democracy, a number of new phenomena and technologies have flooded the realm of public consciousness, providing new contexts to practice quantitative literacy—a constant flux that can be at once both exhilarating and overwhelming for those involved in teaching and creating QL courses. Here we seek to capture and acknowledge such flux.

From a thematic standpoint, we have organized this collection around three motifs: Vision and (Re)visions, Curricula for Quantitative Literacy, and Quantitative Literacy in an Institutional Context. Vision and (Re)visions is meant to engage readers with a rich collection of reflection and analysis on the evolution and nature of QL from those who have been involved with the MAA and QL for several decades. In the next section, we include discussions of ways in which authors’ visions have manifested through a variety of curricular themes (including finance, the environment, and social justice, among other topics). Our third and final section of the volume, Quantitative Literacy in an Institutional Context, centers on institutional matters of program growth and assessment, among other things. The chapters of the volume illuminate how far the MAA’s QL community has come over the past decades, demonstrating that Steen’s 2004 Urgent Challenge for universities has not gone unanswered.