| Summary: | The idea that the modern mathematics can help pupil to become more intelligent or rational as the future citizens, was initiated in the United States after the WWII and accelerated after the launch of Sputnik by the USSR. As a part of martial plan, the United States introduced this idea in Europe through the so-called Royaumont Seminar in 1959. The seminar with the title “New thinking in school mathematics” was organized by the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) and chaired by the American mathematician Dr. Marshall Stone in Royaumont Abbey in Paris. This seminar recommended its member countries to proceed with a reform in their mathematics teaching. Dr. Stone expressed the need for this reform “deep and urgent” (OEEC, 1961, p. 29). Luxembourg was also one of the first nations to participate in these international curricular activities including the Royaumont Seminar (OECD, 1961, p. 215). The development of maths and sciences education became an issue for the country to such an extent that Pierre Frieden, the prime minister of Luxembourg in 1958, proclaimed: “Those, who have the best scientists will win the Cold War … [and] the economic war!” (LW February 27, 1958, p. 3), thus underscoring the need for Luxembourg’s to participate in the reform movement. This paper is part of a research project that studies how New Math was adapted for Luxembourgish primary schools. It works to reveal how a ‘globally’-disseminated idea about how mathematics relates to the ideology of the rational and critical citizen has been implemented in Luxembourg by translating it into its cultural idiosyncrasy. Many Luxembourgian mathematicians attempted to adapt conceptions of the new mathematics for the elementary levels during the 1960s and 1970s. Alongside, these mathematicians were also active in participating and even hosting conferences focusing on the subject of New Maths reform in that era. However, despite all these efforts, the new mathematics officially entered Luxembourg’s primary school textbooks twenty ...
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