Cutting-edge research in mathematics and its applications (Atena Editora)

Abstract

The new coronavirus pandemic took everyone by surprise. Suddenly, at the beginning of 2020, we had to change our life and professional routines and adapt to a “new normal”, where social distancing was put as the main measure to stop the spread of the disease. Several economic segments of society, in the hands of what was put by the health authorities, needed to rethink their activities.

The social, political and cultural context, as highlighted by Silva, Nery and Nogueira (2020), has demanded very particular issues for society. This, in a way, has led managers to look at training spaces with different eyes. Society has changed, in this scenario of inclusion, technology and a “new normal”; with this, it is important to pay attention to training spaces, in a dialogical movement of (re)thinking the different ways of doing science. Research, in the meantime, has become an important place to broaden the view on the numerous problems, especially with regard to mathematical knowledge (SILVA; OLIVEIRA, 2020).

In this complex and plural society that Mathematics subsidizes the bases of reasoning and the tools to work in other areas; it is perceived as part of a movement of human and historical construction and it is important to help in the understanding of the different situations that surround us and the countless problems that are unleashed daily. It is important to reflect on all of this and understand how mathematicians and the humanistic movement made possible by their work happen.

Teaching Mathematics goes far beyond applying formulas and rules. There is a dynamic in its construction that needs to be noticed. It is important, in the teaching and learning processes of Mathematics, to prioritize and not lose sight of the pleasure of discovery, something peculiar and important in the process of mathematizing. This, to which we referred earlier, is one of the main challenges of the mathematician educator, as D'Ambrósio (1993) asserts. In this sense, the book “Cutting-edge research in mathematics and its applications 2” was born: as allowing the different research experiences in Mathematics to be presented and constituted as a training channel for those interested. Here we have gathered articles by authors from different countries.

We hope that this work, in the way we organize it, awaken provocations, concerns and reflections in the readers. After this reading, we can look at Mathematics with different eyes. We therefore wish you a good read.

Américo Junior Nunes da Silva

André Ricardo Lucas Vieira