Mathematical Oppression?!

At first glance, one might not realize the systems of oppression that are abundant in our society. They work tirelessly and everywhere; our homes, places of work, our favorite hangout spots and our schools. There are things that are out of our control as teachers, but built into the curriculum itself there is planned learning that is oppressive. Let’s take for example mathematics, our challenge for today’s blog post is to identify; first I want to think back to how my mathematics class may have been oppressive to myself or my classmates, and second I want to address three ways that Inuit mathematics challenge the commonsense of Eurocentric mathematics.

When thinking of answers to the first query the first thing that came to mind was the lack of First Nations education within my school not just in math class. In honesty, I can’t say I remember ever having a First Nations’ student in our school, so perhaps the faculty didn’t consider it a priority to teach us indigenous learning. If this is the case, they were sorely mistaken, in fact this could be considered an oppressive act. Denying students who were predominantly white knowledge of the importance of the First Nations people within our history and society only brew more fear of the people we don’t understand or indifference towards their social issues. As we have previously discussed though people who are indifferent may not have ill will towards marginalized groups, they inaction allows injustice to continue.

A second aspect I found interesting that Little Bear describes is the positive reinforcement that is met with student’s success. This is something I found to be lacking within my math class. Our teacher was not a huge positive reinforcement kind of person. The students that were doing well, went generally unbothered by the teacher, but the students who were doing poorly were under constant surveillance and often got the “do better” talk (I know from personal experience). Now despite having a horrid time with the subject itself, the teacher was one of my favorites which is why it really felt awful to let him down.

The final circumstance I can think of was earlier on when our class was learning multiplication, one of my classmates was showing off the method her parents had shown her for multiplications. For a long time I didn’t understand how she was doing it, but I’ve come to realize this was the lattice method of multiplying. Our teacher was unimpressed to say the least. Our teacher told her “You can multiply like that if it helps you at home, but on homework or a test I want you to show me your work in the way I teach you in class.”. Reflecting on this now, that statement was very oppressive, she learned that method from her culture and though it wasn’t the same method it still granted the desired result, so what difference should it make? The teacher was in this instance repressing her cultural learning and normalizing the Eurocentric mathematical method.

To answer the second question, I think the most obvious difference in the way the Inuit have learned mathematics versus the normalized western methods is that from and early age, they learn it in their native tongue. Now to many this may not seem like an issue, I refute that by saying I learned all of my mathematics going through a french school system, a system mind you that used the same Eurocentric base for their mathematical system as the English. Yet, when I reached university level maths, I struggled 1. because math is not my strong suit and 2. because I needed to relearn many of the terminologies as they weren’t familiar to me. The Inuit children then face an even bigger challenge because they are learning math up to grade 3 in Inuktitut which uses a base-20 for of counting versus the french or English methods that they take on in grade for which rely on base-10. This would be an incredible challenge as they students in essence need to tear down what they know and begin anew with a different system that they aren’t familiar with.

A second mathematical difference that is discussed is the method of measuring, whereas the Europeans developed a standard unit of measurements, the Inuit preferred using tools that were readily available to them at all times, their bodies. The Europeans always needed to be exact with their measurements to be certain that the result of their equations or creations fit perfectly. The Inuit’s system however sings the praises of their intuition, they could use their bodies to give approximate measurements and use their spacial awareness to create something that was of use. I dare anyone reading this to go knit or sew something using only their body as a measuring tool, see how well that goes. Spacial awareness is a skill that many students in our school system lack and have trouble comprehending. Perhaps re communing with nature and creating new ways to interact with mathematics in the outdoors should be a part of curriculum?

My favorite of the mathematical differences, and the final one I will write about, is the difference in the calendar. Europeans have a tendency to want to put numbers on everything. Hours of a day? Slap a number on it. Currency system that relies on thin pieces of paper or plastic? The bigger the number, the better. A way to designate a new model of your favorite long-distance walkie-talkie/Candy Crush playing device? You guessed it, NUMBERS! The fact the Inuit use significant natural events to designate the end and start of a month is brilliant. It straight up disregards the Eurocentric method by not implicating numbers at all. To me this method makes more sense than the European method, because the Earth isn’t 100% predictable, despite how much humans want it to be. The seasons change every year, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Being aware enough to notice the changes in nature around you, especially in the animals like the Inuit do, shows a true connection to the environment around them. Additionally, this is another strength the Inuit show that lacks within European teaching. The recognition of changes in animal behavior and environment shows a distinct understanding of the patterns that are present in nature. Many city students would likely be hard-pressed to demonstrate that kind of learning.

Author: brodlanj

This site is for my ECS 100 teacher portfolio. I am an joint kinesiology and education student at the university of Regina. I have been studying for six years now, I am currently finishing the education portion of my degree as well as extra minors in french and health. My goal is to one day become a physical education teacher in the francophone school system.

One thought on “Mathematical Oppression?!”

  1. I agree with you that the English system of ounces, pounds, inches and yards is not easy to learn when compared to other systems. Even same terms in a different language often makes things uncomfortable for a learner. Moving from a base 10 system to a base 10 system is also such a huge jump.

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