CERME 6 - WORKING GROUP 8 QUESTIONS AND THOUGHTS FOR RESEARCHING CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
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This paper considers the field of enquiry called ethnomathematics and its role within mathematics education. We elaborate on the shifted meaning of ‘ethnomathematics’. This “enriched meaning” impacts on the philosophy of math education. Currently, the concept is no longer reserved for ‘nonliterate’ people, but also includes diverse mathematical practices within western classrooms. Consequently, maths teachers are challenged to handle people’s cultural diversity occurring within every classroom setting. Ethnomathematics has clearly gained a prominent role, within Western curricula, becoming meaningful in the exploration of various aspects of mathematical literacy. We discuss this enriched meaning of ethnomathematics as an alternative, implicit philosophy of school mathematical practices. Key-words: Ethnomathematics, Diversity, Politics, Philosophy, Values.Keywords:
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A great deal of the history of research in ethnomathematics has been dominated by the study of fundamental differences in ways of doing mathematics among various cultures. Understanding these differences is critical for the comprehension of human nature, and learning in relation to problem resolution. Using ethnomathematics as a program for the understanding of this fact, this article discusses how the study of different algorithms can contribute toward the incorporation, learning and celebration of the differences between diverse cultural groups. Ethnomathematics provides a basis for acknowledging the structures in diverse and often highly dynamic societies that are part of the dominant or majority community power structure. It also teaches learners to connect culture and mathematics and enriches this subject matter by understanding and bridging the often perceived dichotomy between academic mathematics and daily life. An ethnomathematics perspective provides a transformational space for students and teachers, and allows them to think of diversity as good, valuable, and necessary to living in a globalized interconnected world. Through a study of the algorithms immigrant students bring to the community, both teachers and students learn that culture influences the development of these methods, which are used to solve mathematical problems.
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Sketching three different approaches to mathematics education, I choose for a pluralistic view, called multimathemacy. The focus is on cultural diversity and particular and local skills and insights in the out-of-school knowledge of the children. ‘Trivial mathematics’ as Hardy called it can be used as a bridge between these skills and insights and the abstract thinking in so-called pure mathematics. The sociocultural learning theory of the Vygotsky school and its contemporary elaborations should be adopted in teaching procedures and curricula to that end.
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This article applies anthropological theory in exploring how Mathematics teachers imbed indigenous epistemologies in the teaching of pure Mathematics in high schools in South Africa. I spent two months staying in one of the Venda communities sharing at times food and other amenities with the three boys, at the same time collecting data and understanding cultural practices. I observed the participants on a daily basis, playing a mathematical game called “mutoga” in their local language. I also joined them in class where they were taught Mathematics at school. Findings seem to indicate that ethnomathematics epistemologies can successfully be embedded in the teaching of pure Mathematics in South African high schools. I therefore argue that the use of indigenous mediation experiences must assume culturally responsive pedagogy to open up the curriculum and assessment practices to allow for different ways of knowing and being. Initially, a generic argument for the inclusion of indigenous content within the Mathematics curriculum is suggested. Secondly, several exemplar scenarios of teaching praxis including indigenous content are discussed. Finally, evidence on the utility of such exemplar scenarios for students in learning about indigenous peoples and key processes and skills for working with indigenous communities from student feedback are discussed. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n15p327
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The importance of acknowledging the cultural dimension in mathematics teaching and learning research
In this paper, which is in four parts, I make a plea to those involved in research into mathematics teaching and learning of the need to acknowledge, however their work is framed, that it will be located in a culture, not always visible to a reader, that should be made explicit. In the first part I examine three key models of culture and their significance for education. In the second I further highlight the impact of culture on what children are expected by critiquing various models of curriculum. The third part examines how culture informs the particularities of four European mathematics curricula, while the fourth part explores culturally located differences in mathematics teaching. In so doing a plea to researchers is framed: Culture permeates all aspects of educational endeavour and should be acknowledged more explicitly than it is.
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The purpose of this article is to share the possibilities of reinventing an inclusive constitution path of social subjectivities in the mathematics classroom where learning and social exclusion coexist. This research stems from investigations conducted in mathematics classrooms where the (in)exclusion in participation of students is evident. From a sociopolitical perspective of mathematics education and arguments coming from the critical theory about the curriculum and Foucauldian studies in education, I propose to start with the analysis of the school mathematics inclusion story of two mathematics curriculum reforms. I question the possible meanings of systems of reasoning as historical practices that normalize and build cultural thesis about the (in)exclusion. I propose the cultural dimension in the mathematics classroom as a nodal concept in learning and teaching practices of mathematics to set up inclusive social subjectivities. Addressing these issues enables us to advance our understanding of why and how school mathematics can contribute to a more just society.
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