Johanna Pejlare

My research is dedicated to the history of mathematics and mathematics education. I am primarily interested in the history of Swedish mathematics education. Among other things, I study some of the earliest Swedish textbooks in mathematics from the 17th and 18th centuries, where I am interested in how mathematical concepts have been introduced in Sweden, as well as the relationship between algebra and geometry. An example of this can be found in the mathematician Anders Gabriel Duhre, who in 1721 was the first to translate parts of Euclid's Elements into Swedish. Unlike many contemporary mathematicians, Duhre chose to place the geometric theorems in an algebraic context. One purpose of this was to be able to generalize the results to other types of quantities because the unknown quantity does not have to be, for example, a distance.

I also conduct research within the Akelius Math Learning Lab, which is a collaboration between Chalmers University of Technology, University of Gothenburg and Akelius Math AB. Within the Akelius Math Learning Lab, teachers and researchers collaborate to develop a freely available digital teaching material in mathematics in several languages, which should be able to be used in refugee camps and in schools with scarce resources.

During 2019-2021 I led the project "Programming for learning in mathematics", which was financed via ULF, University of Gothenburg. This practical research project in collaboration with Hvitfeldtska gymnasium aimed to investigate in which ways programming can offer opportunities for learning in mathematics.

In 2016-2019 I participated in the VR project "Towards research-based teaching in algebra", which was led by Kirsti Hemmi, then professor at Åbo Akademi. Within this project I studied, among other things, the role of algebra in school mathematics over the last 50 years. I have also been involved in an international comparative study (Sweden - Finland - Spain), led by Jon Star at Harvard, which focuses on students' flexibility in equation solving.

For many years I have closely collaborated with Kajsa Bråting, Uppsala university, mainly regarding research in history of mathematics. Kajsa is dearly missed and cherished in loving memory.

I am a member of the research group TLM - Teaching and Learning of Mathematics. I am part of the network N2AL - Nordic Network for Algebra Learning, which was started in the spring of 2016 at the initiative of researchers in algebra education in Sweden and Finland. Moreover, I am also a member of the advisory board for HPM - International Study Group on the relations between History and Pedagogy of Mathematics.

At Mathematical Sciences, I am the chairman of the Library Committee and a member of the Research Committee.