Using School Mathematics to Understand Cultural Activities: How Far Can We Go? (original) (raw)
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This article analyses teachers‟ and learners‟ perspectives on the role of school mathematics in understanding cultural activities. The qualitative study from which this article emerges worked with three mathematics teachers and their Grade 9 learners from one rural school (situated very close to a cultural village). An attempt to connect mathematics concepts to cultural activities was made. Mathematics and culture are often interconnected, making school mathematics intimately linked to the society in which it is taught. Where connections are applied in mathematics education, the position often taken is using cultural activities as a vehicle into understanding school mathematics. This article focusses on the reverse, which is using school mathematics to understand cultural activities. This will be pursued in some discussions of cultural activities via mathematics, largely based on the notion that the mathematics content learnt in schools should be transferrable for use in learners‟da...
Revista Eletrônica de Educação Matemática
Nesse artigo, discutimos a Educação Culturalmente Relevante, as Escolas Culturalmente Relevantes, a Pedagogia Culturalmente Relevante e os aspectos culturais da Matemática. A base teórica comum desses campos de conhecimento está inter-relacionada no tocante ao desenvolvimento da Etnomatemática. Nesse contexto, os educadores respeitam os alunos provenientes de diversas culturas, propiciando esforços contínuos e genuínos para entender as suas perspectivas sociais e culturais, a fim de acolher experiências inovadoras de aprendizado e ações pedagógicas, abordando alunos com atitudes e posturas flexíveis em relação aos entendimentos interculturais. Portanto, é imperativo utilizar políticas e práticas que valorizem os educadores, os professores e os alunos com o objetivo de possibilitar a sua interação efetiva em um ambiente culturalmente diverso.
Acta Didactica Universitatis Comenianae. Mathematics, 2010
A quick glance at contemporary mathematics education makes plain that we are living in a time of important changes. The ideas conveyed by classical theories in our field, including learning as a mental adaptive construction and the conception of the teacher as a mere learning facilitator, are now questioned. There has been an important shift provoked by a profound need to regain contact with the realm of the social and the cultural. However, this shift, produced by what I term here “the anthropological turn in Mathematics Education”, is not without its problems. It requires a re-conceptualization of Mathematics Education and, more specifically, of the learner, the teacher and the knowledge to be learned. In this article, I present an overview of what mathematical activity and classroom practice look like from an emerging sociocultural perspective – the theory of knowledge objectification.
2015
Ethnomathematics is the mathematics of cultural groups, but often those cultural groups are “others” and “elsewhere”. However, it is also valuable to look inward to see the interaction of mathematics and one’s own culture. An assignment in a graduate course offers this opportunity to students. The assignment is to find an area of the student’s personal “culture” (sometimes defined rather broadly) and find its use of mathematics. Students are asked to write about (a) the cultural area; (b) how they are personally tied to it; and (c) how and where it uses mathematics. In addition to the paper, students make an oral presentation. Thus, all students learn (often surprising) aspects of their classmates’ non-professional life, and the presenter digs into areas of family and heritage that may not have been reviewed before. Since all students are classroom mathematics teachers, finding their own cultural mathematics is not only enlightening for themselves, but also offers opportunities to i...
Math in a Cultural Context: Two Case Studies of a Successful Culturally Based Math Project
Anthropology <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> Education Quarterly, 2005
Math in a Cultural Context (MCC) was developed from ethnographic work with Yup'ik elders and teachers. The need for culturally based curricula seems obvious to those in the field of educational anthropology, but not necessarily to policymakers. Two case studies of novice teachers, one cultural "insider" and one "outsider," illustrate how each effectively taught MCC. The insider transformed her teaching by allowing student ownership through inquiry and cultural connections. The outsider deepened her mathematics content knowledge and found a perfect pedagogical fit through MCC. [culturally based curriculum, Yup'ik, mathematics teaching and learning, teacher enactment of curricula] When you look at someone else's culture you get more ideas-he [Lipka] helped us to open our eyes to see that our culture had more math in it. I am looking that way with open eyes, how they [the elders] used math to survive.-Nancy Sharp,
This thesis portrays my comprehensive and evolving inquiry into the prolonged problems of culturally decontextualised mathematics education encountered by the students of Nepal in schools and colleges. It also depicts how the pupils from the land of diverse cultures are prevented from learning contextualised (culturally embedded) mathematics. I have presented comprehensively my learning practice of mathematics in school, colleges and University, teaching practice of mathematics in secondary school and trainings I have given to the primary school teachers based upon the Habermas’ three fundamental human interests-technical (controlling), practical (understanding) and emancipatory (independence). To portray my research study, I have chosen an autoethnography, small p philosophical inquiry and Living Educational Theory as my methodological referents comprising narratives such as poems, drama, dialogues and stories visualizing them with interconnected photographs so far. Autoethnography helped me to produce the research text of my cultural and professional contexts of learning and teaching mathematics. Small p philosophical inquiry enabled me to generate new knowledge via a host of innovative epistemologies that have the goal of deepening understanding of normal educational practices by examining them critically, identifying underpinning assumptions, and reconstructing them through scholarly interpretations and envisioning. And living educational theory enabled me to inquire lived and living contradictions of our lifeworlds. In order to carry out my ontological (what is reality?) and epistemological (to know reality) activities I have used the paradigms of interpretivism (Habermasian practical interest) and criticalism (Habermasian emancipatory interest). The paradigm of interpretivism helped me in interpreting/explaining the teaching-learning practice of culturally decontextualised mathematics embedded in events or situations of my life. The critical paradigm helped me to identify my research problem, to critically reflect upon my teaching-learning experiences and to transform my teaching/learning from culturally decontextualised to contextualised mathematics education. I also depicted how inclusion of ethnomathematics in academic mathematics helps pupils understanding (practical) the culturally decontextualised (pure?) mathematics in sharing of knowledge through cooperative learning in an independent environment (emancipatory) rather than in controlled environment (technical). I also portrayed how an inclusion of contextual mathematics in Nepali curriculum prevents pupils from diversion/rejection of academic mathematics as a body of pure knowledge.
Integration of Cultural Practices in Teaching Mathematics
2018
The interdependence between culture and education is not new to educators anymore. Educators acknowledge the fact that culture defines and gives identity to education while education strengthens culture. Indeed, these two disciplines are inseparable and complementary. However, cultural relevance in mathematics instruction is seldom evident. This qualitative-quantitative study designed lesson plans that drew upon the context of students' cultural background and experiences. Primarily, this study presented several ways on how teachers, especially those with less technological opportunities, can make use of locally-available materials. Interviews and observations were conducted to determine the cultural practices along traditional games and livelihood activities of a certain cultural group. The identified mathematical practices were examined to develop appropriate and culturally relevant lessons which were implemented to two groups of students to determine its effects on students' conceptual understanding and interest towards Mathematics. Results revealed that there is a significant difference between the performance of the two groups of students, within the considered constructs, before and after being exposed to culture-related activities. Inclusion of the cultural aspects of students in mathematics instruction has deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts, boost their interest in mathematics and has widen their view of their own culture by making meaningful connections between mathematics and their cultural practices. Furthermore, the role of community as co-partner in the teaching and learning process was maximized when they serve as key resource persons. Hence, the researcher encourages educators to become culturally responsive in instruction.
The Role of Ethnomathematics in Mathematics Education
The Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education, 2015
presented a paper illustrating how schools can change when funds are available to assist schools and communities to implement appropriate and effective professional development, to establish partnerships between school and community, to revise teaching approaches and curriculum, to overcome disadvantage, and to value family and Aboriginal cultural heritage. She stressed that the people involved and their planning are critical for transformation. The schools were in a Smarter Stronger Learning Community so they supported each other across schools but other programs in the various schools were also important in achieving change. Zhou Chang-jun, Shen Yu-hong, Yang Qi-xiang (Dehong Teachers' College) presented a paper about Dai ethnic mathematical culture, which is an important part of Dai ethnic culture. Mathematical elements show in their daily life. Through a research project of the Yunnan Dehong Dai people in southwest China, they collected the first-hand information, tried to do a small investigative study, and collected mathematics teaching resources that are useful to primary and secondary schools students on mathematics learning in this minority areas.