As a student, learning mathematics I did not find it overly discriminating. I took math right from early elementary all the way to high school. We were usually only taught math one way and now I have realized there are so many other ways to learn math. I have also realized not all cultures learn and practice the subjects the same way. Although I never really had difficulties with math, there was some students in my class who really struggled with not being able to learn it their own way. An example of this in relation to Leroy Little Bear’s “Jagged Worldviews Colliding,” Aboriginal peoples learn math through a different way than what is taught in school. They teach math through storytelling and dance by relating math to something important in their life. All my years of learning mathematics, I was never taught that all the other students may have been feeling oppressed.
The article “Teaching Mathematics and the Inuit Community” by Louise Poirier suggest various ways that Inuit mathematics challenges Eurocentric mathematics. Three that stuck out to me include:
- Learning math in their mother tongue
- Inuit children go through the first three years of school learning math in their language. Poirier states that “Furthermore, Inuit mathematics is quite different. For example, theirs is a base-20 numeral system.” (pg. 54)
- Measuring techniques
- The first tools used to measure were body parts (fingers, foot, etc.). Today, there are still Inuit people that use body parts as a form of measurement.
- Different teaching methods
- Traditional Inuit teaching involves bringing in and elder and having students observe and listen. Questions are not often asked when using traditional teaching methods unless they know for sure that the students will have the answer.