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Compendium for Early Career Researchers in Mathematics Education

Gabriele Kaiser and Norma Presmeg, eds.
Publisher: 
Springer
Publication Date: 
2019
Number of Pages: 
532
Format: 
Hardcover
Series: 
ICME-13 Monographs
Price: 
59.99
ISBN: 
978-3-030-15636-7
Category: 
Collection
[Reviewed by
Stephanie Blanda
, on
03/8/2020
]
Compendium for Early Career Researchers in Mathematics Education is one of many ICME-13 monographs.  This Compendium and its chapters are based on workshops that were presented as part of the Early Career Researcher Day that took place immediately before the congress on July 24, 2016.  In addition to the workshop material, Part V of the book comments on important themes that are up-and-coming in mathematics education.
 
As a reference text, this Compendium is a valuable resource for early career mathematics education researchers.  Many chapters give very detailed information about useful techniques for this field.  For example, Chapter 6 (Planning and Conducting Mixed Methods Studies in Mathematics Educational Research) begins with what mixed methods research is, explains how to set up such a method, evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the method, and explains how mixed methods are used specifically in math education research.  This level of detail makes this text extremely accessible to a newer practitioner.  In addition, each chapter ends with an extensive list of references on the given topic.
 
Another especially useful inclusion for newer researchers is Part IV – Academic Writing and Academic Publishing that focuses specifically on the major current journals in mathematics education.  These chapters detail the process of submitting to various math education journals, highlight some common reasons for rejection, explain the revision process, and give tips on transforming a dissertation into the more compact form necessary for a published research paper.  Though the focus is on publishing in math education research journals, many of the tips and recommendations given are useful to any mathematician who is new to academic publishing.
 
While this Compendium is very useful for introducing the reader to mathematics education research, it does have its limitations.  There is no index – instead, each chapter includes a list of keywords and an abstract.  Because of this, searching for a topic of interest, while possible, is much more time-consuming.  In addition, some chapters are not written with an eye towards an audience who is new to the field of mathematics education, using terminology and methods with little to no explanation.  This is not a major flaw – the book doesn’t claim to be for those who are attempting to switch research areas to mathematics education, but this should be taken into consideration for anyone wishing to use the Compendium as a way to enter the field.
 
Overall, the Compendium is a great support for early career researchers who are already familiar with the field of mathematics education.
 
Stephanie Blanda is an Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Lebanon Valley College.  Her research interests include machine learning and data science.