Educator, community and student reflections on community-engaged research and learning for mathematics

Community-engaged research and learning (CERL) is a constructivist pedagogy that involves students working on projects in collaboration with community partners. This approach was introduced to universities in the late 1960s, and although some disciplines have wholeheartedly embraced it, it is still rarely used in mathematics. This paper consists of a series of reflections written by educators, students, community partners and university leaders about a module in a mathematics degree that includes an element of CERL. These reflections demonstrate that community partners find value in the work done by mathematics students and that university leaders are broadly supportive of efforts to introduce novel pedagogies. However, perhaps most importantly, these reflections show that students find real value and meaning in doing these real-world projects that they feel is often absent in other parts of their degree. As the reflections show, CERL also offers a way for lecturers to start a dialogue about the student’s motivations for studying mathematics. This dialogue provides students with a forum for them to reflect critically on the education that they have received, which in turn supports them in thinking about the purpose to which they will apply their education. This collaborative authorship approach reflects the participatory principles of CERL, where students, lecturers, and community partners work together as co-researchers rather than in traditional researcher-subject relationships.