A Reflection on the Life of Roger Eyland
By John Mack
Delivered at the Memorial Service for Roger on 19th January, 2018.
Roger’s family has invited me to speak about Roger’s activities as a member of both the Sydney University mathematics community and the wider community of mathematics teachers – two communities which have a long history of beneficial interaction, going back to the early 20th century. I think it will be helpful for me to sketch briefly that history, as it provides a context for my subsequent remarks.
The University of Sydney was the only NSW university until the mid-20th century and its academics were much involved with the development of secondary education in NSW from the early 1900s onwards. In particular, in 1910, H. S. Carslaw (the then Professor of Mathematics at Sydney) founded in Sydney a branch of the British Mathematical Association, which I’ll abbreviate to MA(NSW), and which, like its parent body, was created to facilitate communication between school teachers of mathematics and their academic colleagues. Carslaw encouraged his staff to interact with teachers via this body and also to engage in areas such as their professional development, the school mathematics curriculum and in setting and marking the final school examinations. This practice continued under his successor, T.G. Room, so that, for example, when I joined the department in 1960, several senior colleagues were involved with extra-curricular activities of this kind and new arrivals were encouraged to contribute. The introduction of ‘new math’ school syllabuses here in the early 1960s certainly boosted this, and also increased collaboration with MA(NSW).
Higher education in Australia grew rapidly during the 1960s and the recruitment of additional staff in mathematics became a high priority during the 1960s and 1970s. When Roger joined us in 1968, he found us all working hard to cope with an expansion of research interests on the one hand, and with rapidly growing class sizes and a need to meet the demand for more, properly qualified, teachers of mathematics and for more teacher inservice activities on the other. He rapidly became an effective and capable contributor to our work, willing to accept a variety of teaching duties and their associated administrative requirements, and engaging in the full range of discussions and arguments about our curriculum, our philosophy and our role as a department within the faculty and the university that to me was an especially significant part of academic life in the 1970s and early 1980s. Roger’s love of mathematics, steady temperament, his strong sense of equity and justice and his ease with students and colleagues alike, combined with a dry wit, always characterised his actions. I wish to single out one important component of our curriculum which Roger was much involved with over several decades –the third year unit History of mathematical ideas.
Our third-year topics always included several that were not only of general interest but also were considered of value to school teachers wishing to broaden their understanding of the mathematical topics in the school curriculum. (In fact, for some years, we offered an evening M A course intended for teachers, which included such topics.) In 1973, Gordon Monro and Jim Ward proposed a third year unit on aspects of the history of mathematics, modelled on a unit Gordon had studied at Monash university. Their proposal suggested a new way of organising content, tutorials, assignments and assessment, naturally provoking concern amongst their colleagues, but nevertheless it was accepted on a trial basis and its reception carefully monitored, with the resulting outcomes stimulating spirited discussion based on both student and lecturer/tutor feedback. Roger’s own interest in the history and philosophy of mathematics lead him to suggest some gradual modifications to this unit, especially with regard to its aims and its reference material.
More emphasis was placed on the ideas underpinning the development of the mathematics covered, and its focus became the development of the ideas leading to the creation of the calculus. Also, instead of some general references as part of the content development and with much input from Roger, there evolved an accompanying sourcebook, containing a careful selection of extracts from relevant historical documents. ( The process of evolution of this sourcebook is fascinating in itself – Gordon Monro recently sent me the first few pages of its 1997 version, labelled as the fifth preliminary edition, with diagrams by Graham Tilly and the TeX input by Cathy Kicinski and Roger Eyland.) What is clear here is that Roger remained actively involved with this most interesting topic for several decades.
However, my mention above of the marvellous TeX software, which revolutionised the preparation of mathematical and scientific printed material, provides me with a natural transfer of attention to Roger’s long and valuable involvement with MA(NSW) – for some time now the independent MANSW – and again I will focus on one aspect only of his work with this important teacher association, that of the preparation and production of reports, articles, journals, proceedings and other printed material for distribution to NSW mathematics teachers and educators in particular. I am pleased here to inform you that the following presentation has been prepared with considerable help from the MANSW and especially from its former President, Mary Coupland, and its current President, Maria Quigley, and is a tribute to Roger from that Association.
“Roger was involved with MANSW from the mid-1970s and was an absolutely essential part of its publications activity for well over a decade. In 1980, he was appointed Publications Editor and held that position for several years. This entailed the overall (hands-on) supervision of the production of journals, the ever-popular HSC Exam Solution Booklets and the regular newsletters. In those pre-internet and pre-email days, much time was spent checking copy, proof reading, liaising with the printers, preparing, attaching and sorting postal address labels according to Australia Post specifications and posting/delivering the final products. Most of this activity was based in Roger’s office! Eventually in 1984, a computer and printer were purchased and over the next few years Roger pioneered the move from typewriters and dot-matrix printers to laser printing and also to the use of better mathematical software packages, always improving the efficiency of the process and the quality of the final product. He also became expert in editing and preparing for publication the Proceedings of major conferences organised by MANSW or the AAMT – the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, founded in 1966 as a national body linking MANSW and similar organisations across the country.
“Roger was one of the important links between between high school teachers and university mathematicians. His knowledge of the History of Mathematics was extensive and was shared willingly with any who were interested. Attending the History of Mathematical Ideas course introduced one to the human side of mathematics – valuing the purpose of the enterprise and learning how the discipline has been shaped by people reacting in their turn to the intellectual and scientific demands of the day.
“Roger made a significant contribution to MANSW and it was fitting that he was given Life Membership in 1992.”
For me, the instances mentioned above, of Roger’s work in mathematics and mathematics education, exemplify his life as an academic colleague. He addressed tasks with enthusiasm, thought deeply about what was entailed, attended with great care to detail while focusing on their outcomes, encouraged team effort, and pitched in whenever that extra ‘push’ was necessary, always in friendship and good humour.
Surrounded by such colleagues, how could I not have enjoyed every minute of my time as a member of the mathematics and mathematics education communities to which I belonged and which I reflect upon with deep satisfaction? I feel confident that Roger’s colleagues would share similar memories. To his family, on behalf of all of us, I offer our thanks and appreciation for the benefits we derived from Roger Eyland’s life and work.
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