Nerida Fay Ellerton (, born 1942) is an Australian mathematics educator and

historian of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the History of mathematical notation, mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples ...

. She is professor of mathematics education at

Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public research university in Normal, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University and is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teachin ...

. As well as studying the present state of mathematics education, she and her husband McKenzie A. (Ken) Clements have researched the history of mathematics education, in the process discovering school worksheets in the

Harvard Library Harvard Library is the network of libraries and services at Harvard University, a private Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Library is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic librar ...

that are among the oldest known writings of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

Education and career

Ellerton was born in 1942; her father was a schoolteacher in a small school in the

Australian Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass ...

. She completed a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in physical and

inorganic chemistry Inorganic chemistry deals with chemical synthesis, synthesis and behavior of inorganic compound, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subj ...

in 1966, at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

; her dissertation was ''The interaction of aminoacridines and aminobenzacridines with DNA''. By the 1980s she worked in mathematics education at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

. She was director of the National Center for Mathematics Education Research from 1992 to 1993, as professor of mathematics education at

Edith Cowan University Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a public research university in Western Australia. It is named in honour of the first woman to be elected to an Parliaments of the Australian states and territories, Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, and is, , t ...

from 1993 to 1997, and as professor and dean of mathematics education at the

University of Southern Queensland The University of Southern Queensland is a public research university based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, the sixth largest city in the Australian state of Queensland Founded in 1967 after a successful campaign by the local Darling Down ...

from 1997 to 2002. While at Edith Cowan University, she also served as editor of the '' Mathematics Education Research Journal''. Her first husband died in 2001, and Ellerton moved to Illinois State University in 2002. In 2005, she married Clements, another Australian mathematics educator and long-term collaborator; he moved to Illinois State to join her.

Books

Ellerton's books include: *''School Mathematics: The Challenge to Change'' (edited with M. A. Ken Clements, UNSW Press, 1989) *''The National Curriculum Debacle'' (with M. A. Ken Clements, Meridian Press, 1994) *''Mathematics Education Research: Past, Present, and Future'' (with M. A. Ken Clements, UNESCO, 1996) *''Rewriting the History of School Mathematics in North America, 1607–1861: The Central Role of Cyphering Books'' (with M. A. Ken Clements, Springer, 2012) *''Abraham Lincoln’s Cyphering Book and Ten other Extraordinary Cyphering Books'' (with M. A. Ken Clements, Springer, 2014) *''Thomas Jefferson and his Decimals 1775–1810: Neglected Years in the History of U.S. School Mathematics'' (with M. A. Ken Clements, Springer, 2015) *''Mathematical Problem Posing: From Research to Effective Practice'' (edited with Florence Mihaela Singer and Jinfa Cai, Springer, 2015) *''Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton, James Hodgson, and the Beginnings of Secondary School Mathematics: A History of the Royal Mathematical School Within Christ's Hospital, London 1673–1868'' (with M. A. Ken Clements, Springer, 2017) *''Using Design Research and History to Tackle a Fundamental Problem with School Algebra'' (with M. A. Ken Clements and Sinan Kanbir, Springer, 2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellerton, Nerida Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian mathematicians Australian women mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Australian mathematics educators Australian women educators University of Adelaide alumni Academic staff of Deakin University Academic staff of Edith Cowan University Academic staff of the University of Southern Queensland Illinois State University faculty Australian emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women mathematicians