Our research interests range across the educational levels (primary, secondary and tertiary) and the workplace, as well as across educational research methods. We have a particular interest in qualitative studies of mathematical thinking, learning, understanding and teaching. Our work has been supported by funders such as the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, the Higher Education Academy, the Learning and Teaching Support Network, the Teacher Training Agency, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada etc. Our collaboration, both in teaching exchanges and research, with several EU countries have been supported by the Erasmus, Socrates and Comenius programmes. Our work focuses on four main themes: (i) teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics; (ii) disaffection in the secondary mathematics classroom; (iii) mathematical understanding in the workplace; (iv) mathematics in the primary years.

In 2002 UEA hosted PME26 (26th Annual Conference of the International Group for Psychology in Mathematics Education) and in 2003 we co-organised the National Conference of the Mathematical Association. Research in Mathematics Education, the Routledge international journal of BSRLM, the British Society for Research into the Learning of Mathematics, is based here (the group’s co-ordinator, Elena Nardi, is Joint Editor in Chief). We have a presence at all major national and international conferences and an increasing number of international collaborations (e.g. Canada, Israel, Australia).

We work closely with colleagues from other mathematics education research groups both in the UK and abroad as well as with UEA’s School of Mathematics and its Further Mathematics Centre. We run a research seminar several times a year and recent external invited speakers have included Tim Rowland, Lara Alcock, Hilary Povey and Lulu Healy. Academic visitors have included Victor Giraldo (Brazil), Theodossios Zachariades & Irene Biza (Greece) and Alejandro S. González-Martín (Spain/Canada).

We offer a friendly and supportive environment of regular group meetings, informal working lunches and public seminars. Furthermore the School offers a thriving community of full-time research students who, in addition to two supervisors, are supported by weekly research methods seminars, have their own just refurbished study base within the School and access to excellent library facilities, including subscription to all the major mathematics education research journals. There is an increasing number of research students whose research is in mathematics education on all of the School's research degrees: PhD (Full-time and Part-time), EdD and MA (Full-time and Part-time) and in 2007-8 we also launched an MA in Mathematics Education programme.