The Canonical Curriculum

We have seen that the canonical school mathematics curriculum was developed in Western Europe in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, and has been adopted practically everywhere during the present century. The importance with which the subject is invested world-wide gives it an unrivalled position in school education. This universal status, and the extraordinary uniformity of syllabuses across the world, seriously inhibit significant changes in school mathematics in any particular country. Yet it is this same status that means that the teaching of mathematics absorbs a large proportion of the resources of every education system – resources of finance, of teachers, of time. Accordingly it is of paramount importance to ask fundamental questions about the place and aims of mathematics in schools. Where social, economic, cultural and employment patterns differ so dramatically between countries, it is difficult to believe that everyone's needs are being best served by the remarkable similarity of the ways in which this central subject is incorporated into school curricula throughout the world.

To give one example of this variety of socio-economic circumstances, consider the school enrolment patterns of Mexico and of Japan. Both countries have a six-year primary cycle followed by a six-year secondary cycle (which in Japan is split into two three-year phases, junior and senior). Both countries aspire to universal secondary education for all.