University Assignment: Critical Numeracy Approach to Unemployment

This report delves into a critical numeracy approach to the contemporary issue of unemployment. It begins by defining critical numeracy and its importance, emphasizing the ability to apply mathematical concepts to real-world problems and make informed decisions. The report then analyzes unemployment as a prevalent global issue, highlighting its impact on economic growth, social cohesion, and individual well-being. It discusses the complexities of measuring unemployment and the various factors contributing to it, including technological advancements and underemployment. The core of the report examines how critical numeracy can be applied to understand the issue, offering ways to interpret statistical data and make logical interpretations. The report also includes a discussion of the four primary aspects of critical numeracy that can help understand the issue, and how critical numeracy can help students to analyze the data and understand the concepts better. Finally, it proposes an activity focusing on a current issue to help students engage in a similar process, either within a mathematics lesson or in an across-the-curriculum activity, to promote critical thinking and showcase the power of mathematics in understanding and addressing current issues.

Running head: A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue 1
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Critical numeracy:......................................................................................................................2
The recognised issue:.................................................................................................................3
Ways in which critical numeracy can help solve the issue:.......................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

2A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
Introduction:
The purpose of this paper is to discuss about a critical numeracy approach to a
contemporary issue. The issue that is selected is unemployment which is prevalent around the
world. The critical numeracy can work combinely with other lenses and literacies for helping
in building the capacities for the wise citizenship. By using a model that is similar as the
critical literacy is having the ability to build and recruit on the strategies related to the visible
thinking, which are being developed in the numeracy context or literacy. The issue will be
analysed in this report.
Critical numeracy:
The numeracy is involving the skills which are not taught always in the classroom. It
is basically the ability to utilize the numbers as well as solve the issues that come in real life.
The meaning of this is, it has the skills and confidence to utilize the mathematical approaches
and numbers in all of the approaches that are related to real life problems. The numeracy is as
much as important to the literacy. The critical numeracy is basically the ability for making the
decisions that are discerning about the issues that come every day, and all of the issues are
having relation with the mathematical concepts. The critical numeracy can work combinely
with other lenses and literacies (emotional, spiritual, ethical, aesthetic, scientific, historical,
social, philosophic, environmental, and critical literacy) for helping in building the capacities
for the wise citizenship. To build the critical numeracy is not only about the encouragement
of scepticism in a lone reader. The key elements for the development of critical numeracy are
as follows:
 Giving the students the opportunity of making sense of concepts related to
mathematics as well as making sense about the context to move to more crucial
thinking.

3A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
 Giving the opportunity to the students to explore others – groups, pairs or the
discussion of the whole class where various kind of views are reconciled or
juxtaposed.
 Giving the opportunity to the student for creating something by utilizing their
knowledge, especially some of the products which are having an audience.
The main purpose of a critical mathematical literacy is not just to understand the concepts
that are related to the mathematics. However, that is required for achieving the goals. Rather
this is to understand how the mathematical thoughts can be used in the struggles for making
the world better.
The critical numeracy utilizes a model is similar to the 4 resource model of the critical
numeracy for building the capacity of the students to ask more questions about the validity,
meaning as well as the usefulness of the texts where mathematical related concepts or
information are involved. By utilizing a model that is similar to the critical literacy is having
the ability to build and recruit on the strategies related to the visible thinking, which are being
developed in the numeracy context or literacy. In the procedure to apply the crucial numeracy
lens, the students are going deeper to the mathematical related concepts as well as deeper to
the concepts. They can give a challenge to the usefulness of the ideas related to the
mathematics in relation with the context. So, it can be said that rather than only learning the
mathematical rules, the students are encourage in explore as well as question the application
of them.
Being numerate are involved in utilizing the mathematical concepts very much
efficiently for making sense about the whole world that is much important than just being
having the ability of calculation. There is an analogy that is very much clear with the critical
literacy that is involving the realisation where all of the texts can represent different views of

4A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
them. The approach that is traditional is known as the ABC method, where the Abstract
procedure or contexts are taught Before Concreting the applications and examples.
The recognised issue:
The issue that can be analyzed by making use of critical numeracy is unemployment
that is prevalent around the world. As per the experts high rate of employment rates are
threatening to the growth as well as the cohesion rate. In this case critical numeracy can be
used to analyze the factors as it is not just that the jobless person who are under the purview
of unemployment. The fact is as there is lack of jobs in the market and thus people tend to go
for certain jobs that are not as per their qualifications. This is required to be calculated as it is
a huge problem at times for calculating the accurate percentage of labour those who are
jobless. It is a difficult task to measure unemployment within a country as comparing the
international rates is definitely a very complicated affair. If mathematics involved in the
calculation is to be considered then it can be understood that unemployment rate can be
calculated by simply dividing the number of the people those who are unemployed by the
total number of individuals in the workforce. There are individuals who are actually confused
about their status that is whether they are employed or unemployed. As they are
underemployed they consider themselves to be unemployed. It can be said that tracking the
labour market is complicated in nature as different tracking tools speak different statistics.
With each passing day the rate of unemployment is rising that is resulting in the loss of
income of individuals. Long term unemployment affects social cohesion leading to various
negative opinions related to the effectiveness of all democratic models, prompting cross
border migrations thus threatening the economy of the trading partners. Considering the
statistics it can be said that peaking at a value of 5.9% in the year 2009 when the acute phase
of financial crisis came to an end, the rate of unemployment in the world slowed down. After
the year 2014, it got stabilized which was near about the mark of 5.5% and the total number

5A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
of the estimated unemployed persons exceeded the value of 192 million. As per reports it can
be understood that at present progress in bringing in reductions of vulnerable employment
has stopped. As per studies northern Africa has the highest number of jobless percentage, the
value being 11.5 in the year 2018. Mostly the women and youth are in the list of
unemployment. In the Middle East countries almost 7.8% are unemployed and amongst this
one-third of them are women. In the mean time Asia and Pacific are trying to create jobs at a
faster pace thus lowering the employment rate. With advancement of technologies such as
robotics people are of the notion that in days to come they will lose their jobs. There has
always been a debate on the topic that is whether technological advancements help create
more jobs or will these technologies replace human work force with machines. Thus in this
case critical numeracy can help in analyzing the actual conditions of the job market.
Ways in which critical numeracy can help solve the issue:
Critical numeracy focuses on various ways that can help in implicating practical
mathematical situations. This is a concept which tells how numeracy is a vital part of our day
to day life. In the issue discussed above there are certain statistical data that provide
information about the rate of unemployment in different parts of the world. Critical numeracy
in this case can provide a logical interpretation of the data. This helps in the practical analysis
of the ground data. The four primary aspects of critical numeracy that can help in
understanding the scenario better are as follows:
1) It helps the critiques to come up with critical interpretations of the mathematical
informations.
2) This helps in interpreting or it can be said that this helps in decoding the mathematical
situations.
3) Mathematics can be used in a self-reflective way.

6A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
4) In this form mathematics can be used to operate in a more powerful way in this world.
The critical numeracy approach helps in understanding the scenario in a better way helping to
take proper decisions. The data given on employment can be critically analysed through
numerical approach and make the researchers understand the condition of the job market
prevalent worldwide. It can be said that critical numeracy approach can help students in
understanding mathematics in a better way. From the above data provided on unemployment
rates it can be well understood which part of the world is facing unemployment at an
alarming rate and thus actions can be taken accordingly. Numeracy is defined as the
knowledge as well as the skills that are required to manage as well as respond to the
mathematical demands of some diverse situations. In this case the unemployment rate
prevalent worldwide can be analysed by using the statistical data about the same and through
critical numeracy can help understand the problem.
As discussed in the article “Not Just a Number: Critical Numeracy for Adults. ERIC
Digest. by Kerka, Sandra” the adult numeracy is under research till now, specially regarding
the practices related to numeracy. As the particular way of thinking that is about the world,
the maths of the particular group or culture can be utilized as the gatekeeper for restricting the
access to the professionals. The numeracy can reflect cultural values. The math can be seen
as neutral or abstract. This is basically a discloser which is a way of thinking or talking as the
problem of unemployment is a vital issue all around the world and numerical analysis will be
the best option to get a in depth idea about the percentage of people unemployed and the
percentage of people employed. In case of real life situations as such critical numeracy helps
in understanding as well as analyzing the various aspects of the same. Like in this case it
provides data about the ratio of unemployed people to the employed ones along with the
percentage of female and youth in the unemployed statistics. Critical numeracy approach can
help students especially as they will understand the concepts of percentage in a better way if t

7A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
cited with data of real life. The numeracy is all about the practical knowledge and procedural
thinking. These kind of knowledge can be perceived as less prestigious or important than the
theoretical knowledge and abstract. There are various ways for solving the problems however
the students can find it helpful for discussing the sort of strategies that they are utilizing in
their real lives. This helps to manage situations by helping to understand the present situation
on the basis of mathematical data. As it is theories are irrelevant without numerical data.
Critical numeracy will help in developing logical thinking and build reasoning strategies in
the day to day activities. In the above case of unemployment data it can help in getting in
depth idea of the scenario and the ratio of the employed to the unemployed. The numeracy
need to be linked as well as contextualized. The mathematics is better for understanding if it
is learned in the familiar contexts which can provide cues for enhancing problem solving
attitude. Teaching from the perspective of the adult learning, a tool for the justice, the
instructors are seeking to alternate the system in that the math can server as the barrier to
“quip people with the knowledge and tools that will enable them to examine and criticize the
economic, political, and social realities of their lives.”
Activity
Focusing on a current issue Learning outcome
Activity 1 Number lock match up:
Requirements:
 Unlock it counting keys and number
match
Critical numeracy can be utilized to
understand this issue. Percentage in
mathematics is an important concept and
this can be well understood by taking the

8A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
example of the unemployment statistics.
people unemployed and number of people
employed.
Activity 2 Beanbag matchup:
Requirements:
 Printed number cards 1-10
 Number 1 – 10 beanbags
The students can understand the concepts of
percentage well. Suppose from total
population of place that is 1million 10% are
unemployed. In this case the students can be
given the activity to find out the number of
Activity 3 Rainbow rice number formation:
Requirements:
 Rainbow rice
 1-20 Wooden Number Matching Discs
 Tray to contain rice
The statistics involved has a lot of
percentage values and in order to understand
the prevalent condition they can be said to
calculate the number of people unemployed
and the number of people who are
employed.

9A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded from the entire report that the primary aim of a critical
mathematical literacy is not just to understand the concepts that are related to the
mathematics but also it is required for achieving the goals. The Critical numeracy can provide
a logical interpretation of the data, alongside it can help in the practical analysis of the ground
data.

10A critical numeracy approach to a contemporary issue
References
Askew, M. (2015). Numeracy for the 21st century: a commentary. ZDM, 47(4), 707-712.
Dole, S., Hilton, A., & Hilton, G. (2015). Proportional reasoning as essential numeracy.
In Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia.
Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Inc..
Geiger, V., Forgasz, H., & Goos, M. (2015). A critical orientation to numeracy across the
curriculum. Zdm, 47(4), 611-624.
Geiger, V., Goos, M., & Forgasz, H. (2015). A rich interpretation of numeracy for the 21st
century: A survey of the state of the field. ZDM, 47(4), 531-548.
Goos, M., Geiger, V., & Bennison, A. (2015). Conceptualising and enacting numeracy across
the curriculum.
Not Just a Number: Critical Numeracy for Adults. ERIC Digest. (2020). Retrieved 3 January
2020, from https://www.ericdigests.org/1996-2/numeracy.html
Straesser, R. (2015). “Numeracy at work”: a discussion of terms and results from empirical
studies. ZDM, 47(4), 665-674.
Yasukawa, K., Rogers, A., Jackson, K., & Street, B. V. (Eds.). (2018). Numeracy as social
practice: global and local perspectives. Routledge.