Editorial
The Southeast Asian Mathematics Education Journal (SEAMEJ) is supported by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Regional Centre for Quality Improvement of Teachers and Education Personnel (QITEP) in Mathematics, better known as SEAQiM. Launched on 13 July 2009 there are now three SEAMEO QITEP in Indonesia, one center is in Mathematics (Yogyakarta-Indonesia) and the two others are in Science (Bandung-Indonesia) and Language (Jakarta-Indonesia).
SEAMEJ is an academic journal devoted to publishing a variety of research studies and theoretical papers in the field of mathematics education. SEAMEJ seeks to stimulate discussion at all levels of the mathematics education community. It aims to publish an edition twice a year, in June and December.
In this issue all papers have undergone our blind peer review process of the External Advisory Panel. The first three papers present Australian perspectives on sustained professional development for primary teachers, on changing the attitudes and beliefs of pre-service primary teachers towards mathematics, and on mathematical literacy.
The journal then switches to Indonesian perspectives with academic papers subjected to our External Advisory Panel review process arising from the 4th International Symposium on Mathematics Education and Innovation (ISMEI) held from 1 to 3 November 2016. The theme of the symposium was “Issues and Challenges in 21st Century Mathematics Education:
Working Towards Meaningful Teaching and Learning”. As it was a conference that attracted a large number of teachers, these papers were written with a pedagogical disposition and so the titles are: Profiling Self-regulated Learning in Online Mathematics Teacher Training: A Case Study of a GeoGebra Course; The Impact of Gender, Parents’ Education Level, and Socio-Economic Status on Turkish Students’ Mathematics Performance; What Can We Learn from the ELPSA, SA, and PSA Frameworks? The Experience of SEAQiM; Students’ Perception on Borobudur Temple as Mathematic Learning Resource; and Innovation in Mathematics Education Through Lesson Study: Challenges to STEM on Statistics and Electricity Saving.
There is a distinction often made between formal research knowledge, which is theoretical and able to be generalized across contexts and given higher status, and practical knowledge of the teacher which is based at the particular, and local context level (Fenstermacher, 1994).
Teachers’ theories which are tested in practice and are an influential part of that practice are often not articulated clearly. Nor are they always subjected to careful scrutiny outside a minority of theory-inclined mathematics education researchers (White, Jaworski, Agudelo-Valderrama, & Gooya, 2013, p. 401).
SEAMEJ seeks to encourage and value both types of research knowledge, Volume 7 Number 2 will be devoted to teacher research arising from the 4th ISMEI. There has been considerable attention and encouragement given by the international mathematics education community to the notion of teacher-as-researcher. However, there is still argument over what is the best model to adopt:
Jaworski (2004) made a distinction between design research and developmental research in terms of the degree of involvement of teachers. She argued that with design research, teachers often were included merely to test out designs developed by external researchers (see for example, Witmann, 1998) whereas, in developmental research, teachers were included in the decision-making process that generates a design (White, Jaworski, Agudelo-Valderrama, & Gooya, 2013, p. 401).
while Lingard and Renshaw (2010) strongly disagree
Design research elevates the importance of teachers as research collaborators, not just at the local level in relation to context-specific professional practices, but in terms of developing more general insight and transferable knowledge about teaching and learning processes (p. 36).
Until there is a consensus, this journal will continue to encourage and value both design research and developmental research by making papers available to our readers. Since our first journal was distributed in 2011, we have continued to refine our processes although we have not yet reached perfection and we apologize for any errors or omissions made. We always welcome feedback and suggestions for improvement, but most of all, we welcome paper contributions.
This Journal seeks articles highlighting empirical as well as theoretical research studies, particularly those that have a perspective wider than local or national interests. All contributions to SEAMEJ will be peer reviewed and we are indebted to the External Advisory Panel for their support.
Dr. Wahyudi and Prof. Allan Leslie White