ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development of numeracy as a concept and as an educational focus in Australian schooling. It begins with an overview of the history of numeracy as a national goal of schooling in the period 1989–2008, noting that these aspirational goals were articulated before there was a commonly accepted definition of what numeracy is. The chapter examines emerging efforts to define numeracy, together with early Australian research into improving numeracy learning and teaching. Numeracy has been identified within Australia’s national goals for schooling since the Hobart Declaration on Schooling, released in 1989. The idea of professional standards setting out what teachers should know and be able to do had gained currency in Australia by the early 2000s, with some educational jurisdictions developing standards frameworks for teachers working in their state systems. In the years 2001 to 2004, the Australian government invested $7 million in the Numeracy Research and Development Initiative.
