Adult educators: Dilemmas and professional practices in the area of mathematics

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the challenges adult educators in the field of "Mathematics for Life" face, as well as to analyse the adaptation and creation of professional practices that emerge from the implementation of the Recognition, Validation, and Certification of Competencies (RVCC) process used in the Portuguese adult education system. Methodologically, the study was undertaken using a qualitative, multi-situated approach that focussed on the dynamics of the New Opportunities Centres, particularly on educators in the field of "Mathematics for Life", most of whom were formerly mathematics teachers in the mainstream education system. Using the official Portuguese documents as a reference framework, the results of the content analysis of the interviews conducted with the adult educators revealed dilemmas and challenges. These were analysed from the perspective of new teaching practices that educators in the "Mathematics for Life" field need to develop and implement in this particular model of adult education, the diversity amongst the adults who use the RVCC system, and the need to decode and adapt official documents in this specific area. Our research shows that the recognition, validation, and certification of competencies (RVCC) process tends to encourage adult educators in the "Mathematics for Life" area to take a dialogical stance that legitimates the daily mathematical knowledge of adults in a way that resembles an ethnomathematics perspective. The results indicate both new attitudes and professional practices related to the search for new teaching methodologies, and methodologies for the validation of learning, expanding previous perspectives and developing the process of identity, as well as the understanding of the meaning of becoming an adult educator in a more holistic way, contextualised within the reality of adult education.