Transmaths: Institutions - Across Phases

Our research highlighted the role the culture of the institution and its inherent values has to play in defining the student’s experience of learning mathematics. Two extremes might be characterised: one in which the institution is focused on chasing performance targets at the expense of inclusive participation, the other being the reverse of this. In the former case the learning needs and aspirations of the individual can to some extent be disregarded in the institution’s requirement to perform well in competition with other institutions locally or nationally. In the most extreme case we can point to an individual student who was encouraged to pursue courses that were irrelevant to his career intentions at the time. This issue manifests itself differently in the different phases we have researched but policy makers at an institutional level should consider how the pursuit of institutional objectives might impact on their students.