HPM Satellite ICMI14 meeting in Macau has been cancelled. There will be a one day online meeting on 19th July 2021, full details to follow shortly.

Welcome to HPM 2020

History and Pedagogy of Mathematics (HPM) is the International Study Group on the Relations between the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics. To enhance the exchange of teaching experience and research findings, HPM holds an international conference once every four years, as a satellite meeting associated with the quadrennial ICMEs. It is our great honor to host the HPM 2020 at the Faculty of Education of University of Macau. With a long history of mathematics theory and practice, the Chinese community has a unique appeal. As one of the four ancient civilizations, Chinese culture has preserved its individuality and unique identity (Needham, 1959).

Chinese people independently developed large and negative numbers, decimals, place value decimal system, binary system, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, which was rarely known by international community (e.g., Needham, 1959). In 1607, Italian Jesuits Matteo Ricci (利瑪竇), who was living in Macau, became the first person who translated Euclid’s Elements into Chinese with Xu Quangqi. Matteo Ricci also translated the first arithmetic book on European pen calculation, Tongwen Suanzhi (同文算指), which changed Chinese mathematics education and allowed Asians access to the real images of Western mathematics. However, contact with the West was indirect through ongoing interactions with India and the Islamic world until the end of the 19th century when mathematics in the East was under the deep influence of mathematics from Europe (Siu, 2011). We believe that this heritage of mixed traditions under the influence of the Confucian educational heritage can provide a resource for new thinking on global development of mathematics education.

With a fascinating history of 400 years of cultural exchanges between the East and the West, Macau is unique in its cultures and society. It assimilates various cultures and is proud of its treasures including picturesque dwellings in traditional styles, ancient temples built during the Ming and Qing dynasties, buildings with Southern European architectural features, Baroque style churches and impressive contemporary structures. In July 2005, the “Historic Centre of Macau” was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Today Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China, under the “One Country, Two Systems” policy.

Macau SAR is growing in number and diversity of its attractions. The greatest of these continues to be Macau’s unique society, with communities from the East and the West complementing each other. It offers a perfect environment for an international conference.

We are especially interested in the “Dialogue among Civilizations” about mathematics education around the world. It is our great pleasure to have mathematics educators, mathematicians, mathematics historians, and mathematics teacher educators from all over the world come and enjoy Macau, and to make HPM 2020 a rich and professionally rewarding conference. The conference attendees will have the opportunity to experience the unique characteristics of Chinese mathematics education practice, which is closely connected to the Eastern traditions of didactics of mathematics that has witnessed important developments.

We are excited to host HPM 2020 and we warmly welcome all of you to Macau!     Chuang Wang, Ph.D. Dean of Faculty of Education, University of Macau   Pak Sang Lou Director of the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Macau SAR, China

References
Needham, J. (1954), Science and civilization in China: Introductory orientations (Volume I). London, England: Cambridge University Press.
Siu, M. K. (2011). 1607, A year of (some) significance: Translation of the first European text in mathematics – Elements – into Chinese. In È. Barbin, M. Kronfellner, & C. Tzanakis (Eds.), History and Epistemology in Mathematics Education: Proceedings of the Sixth European Summer University (ESU) (pp. 573–589). Vienna, Austria: Technische Universität Wien.