Abstract
In this chapter we review Australasian research on numeracy education published from 2020 to 2023. This is the second consecutive chapter to be dedicated to numeracy research in MERGA’s four-yearly reviews, which reflects the significance of research and policy developments in this field. Not only has numeracy become an important goal of schooling, but it also permeates all aspects of people’s lives. For this reason, we have framed the chapter around the concept of numeracy as a life-wide and a lifelong resource. Life-wide perspectives come to the fore in research on the role of numeracy in the formal curriculum and beyond formal education. In the former, numeracy can be represented as a cross-curricular competency or as mathematical literacy in financial, statistical and spatial contexts; beyond formal education, the home, community and workplace are rich numerate environments. Research on lifelong numeracy considers learning, teaching, and assessment from early childhood into the school years, teacher education, tertiary, vocational and adult education. The chapter begins with a critique of current numeracy policies and concludes with suggestions for future research into critical numeracy, teacher preparation, adult numeracy provision, numeracy in senior secondary school courses, and the impact of cross-curricular approaches and resources on numeracy development.