Workshop

Building on the vision Bob Moses set out in the 1993 Algebra Initiative Colloquium, the 2025 Critical Issues in Mathematics Education (CIME) Workshop celebrated the legacy of Moses’ call for a mathematics literacy that supports citizenship in the 21st century. A mathematics towards citizenship has proved elusive as a goal for mathematicians, mathematics educators, researchers, students, teachers, and leaders—even as efforts among different individuals, organizations, and communities labor for greater access to high-quality mathematics learning experiences. The 2026 CIME Workshop, Mathematics Literacy for 21st Century Citizenship - Part II, endeavors to design opportunities for learning, collaborating, and struggling towards a mathematics for lived citizenship, as a theme and organizing principle for communities across the Nation. For Moses, the notion of lived citizenship is not simply a matter of gaining legal status but of demanding that the legal status be meaningful. Thus mathematics literacy for lived or participatory citizenship might be thought of to include contributing to your community, not just being part of a community, and beyond belonging, to actively participate in making your community better, in making life better for others. The conception of mathematics for lived citizenship is an important foundation for the goals for the 2026 CIME Workshop, in order to envision the development of coordinated actions in the short and long term within the mathematics and mathematics education communities. To ground and catalyze these efforts, we invite participants to consider a mathematics for lived citizenship through three foundational ideas: Claiming mathematics -- establishing agency in and ownership of math. Building Agency -- claiming and leveraging mathematics knowledge to overcome present day, generational, community, and national challenges. Collaboration and collective effort -- using mathematics literacy to make systemic change. Three questions will guide our work: How does the unfolding history of mathematics impact lived citizenship? How do we understand the relationship between mathematical flourishing and the evolution of vibrant democracy in the United States?  In light of the above two questions, how do we reimagine our roles, responsibilities, and actions in the short and long term?