Mathematics

When I was taught mathematics, it was done in a very typical way that I am sure many of us have experienced. Math was taught from a textbook, with the teacher walking us through examples on the board. We copied this information down into our notebooks, and we worked on the assignments that came directly out of the textbook. What our teacher may not have realized was that many of us (in my class) learned much better from being able to do things hands on. This simply was not something that was offered to us for most of our schooling. Math certainly did not incorporate culture or other ways of achieving an answer. You did it the way in which your teacher expected you to. I think that as teachers, we need to incorporate many ways of learning, not only the ways in which we personally learned best. Not all of our students are going to be just like us.

In Poirer’s article, it is discussed that math is a social construction; therefore, it is shaped and influenced by community. Eurocentric ideas are most related to using math in its intended way (based on Eurocentric values and nothing else). In the Inuit community, math is taught to young students in their own language, for 3 years. Th curriculum that we see today does not place an emphasis on strength in varying areas of math. In the current model of curriculum, you must be good at the math methods you find in the curriculum/textbook and anything else is almost seen as irrelevant. Along with that, the ways in which math is taught in a typical classroom is very Eurocentric. The ways in which math is taught does not take into account varying cultures or methods of achieving an answer. Without having teachers who come from various cultures, it is difficult to implement teaching math and relating it to culture, likely due to the fear of doing it wrong.

• Bear, L. L. (2000). Jagged worldviews colliding. In M. Batiste (Ed.), Reclaiming Indigenous voice and vision (pp. 77-85). UBC Press.
• Poirier, L. (2007). Teaching mathematics and the Inuit community, Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 7(1), p. 53-67.