ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explain a large-scale transformation in the content of education: math-related and science-related subjects were once quite marginal to national school curricula, but are universally required core components of elementary and secondary school curricula. Mathematics is taught at all levels; science at most levels. An examination of NAEP trends in science proficiency suggests that a majority of 17-year-olds are poorly equipped for informed citizenship and productive performance in the workplace, let alone postsecondary studies in science. The teaching of mathematics and science in national school systems has become universal, and these subjects are viewed as core knowledge in the modern world. Perhaps more than other curricular subjects, achievements in mathematics and science are viewed as the harbingers of economic development and national ‘progress’. Mathematics and science were not always central features of school curricula. The traditional curricula of European nation-states were heavily oriented towards the study of classical languages and the trivium—grammar, rhetoric and logic.
