Blog #12 – Challenging Eurocentric Learning in Mathematics: Investigating Inuit Mathematics & Learning

Today’s blog consists of different learning and how limiting students to a singular path is not correct. The Inuit are shown to challenge eurocentric learning, especially in terms so mathematics. In correlation to the articles presented, there are two questions for this blog:

Part 1: At the beginning of the reading, Leroy Little Bear (2000) states that colonialism “tries to maintain a singular social order by means of force and law, suppressing the diversity of human worldviews. … Typically, this proposition creates oppression and discrimination” (p. 77). Think back on your experiences of the teaching and learning of mathematics — were there aspects of it that were oppressive and/or discriminating for you or other students?

This may not seem oppressive, but in my experience, students were not allowed to do mathematics or process it differently from the teachers. Early in my schooling, teachers would require students to follow the exact way of completing a math problem, otherwise, marks would not be awarded. Currently and in retrospect, I did not see many other problems with learning mathematics or how it was taught. I guess this is what Bear means when it states that in eurocentric views that is “one true god, one true answer, and one right way” (Bear, 2000, p. 82). In that sense, of course, I did not experience many forms of discrimination because I was raised on eurocentric values. I can only imagine the oppression and discrimination done to students. Students may have been able to explain easier to understanding ideas in first-learned languages but were restricted to English. As well, students may have been forced to think of math problems in other forms of measurement they grew up with.

Part 2: After reading Poirier’s article: Teaching mathematics and the Inuit Community, identify at least three ways in which Inuit mathematics challenges Eurocentric ideas about the purposes of mathematics and the way we learn it.

1. Inuit mathematics challenges the Eurocentric view by the months and days; for example, September is not a set number of days and actually is “‘when the caribou’s antlers lose their velvet’” (Poirier, 2007, 60). This challenges Eurocentric views because something is not set or has a particular value. Eurocentric views try to bend reality in their perspective. If I can speculate, this view is more about natural occurrences and seeing the world in a cyclical nature that is already there and does not need to be renamed or changed.
2. The language and ways of teaching challenge the eurocentric view of mathematics; for example, “Aboriginal people educate … by example, actual experience, and storytelling” (Bear, 2000, 81). When reading Poirier (2007) we know that language is used in the context of the real world like, as Poirier states, the word, triangle, roughly means something “that looks like … the top of a hood.” or “The three sides.” This challenges the eurocentric purpose of math because it is normally taught as a tool singularly, and an additional challenge is that the Inuit use “a base-20 numeral system” (Poirier, 2007, p. 54). So the base-20 model already challenges the base-10 system, but there is also a challenge in the language of math as well. In my understanding from the article, the Inuit ideas seem to incorporate math into language, pushing for the learning of math as a part of the language and leading to an understanding at an earlier age while incorporating context into the math problems differently.
3. There is also the idea of traditional Inuit teaching which is described as “observing an elder or listening to enigmas” and doing this should provide clues (Poirier, 2007, p. 55). Now, this incorporates the experience and example potion of the above-mentioned Inuit traditional learning. There is also an understanding that the teacher should ask questions students can answer (Poirier, 2007). Now, this is different but similar to Vygotsky’s proximal zone of learning and scaffolding and thus the Eurocentric view. In the Eurocentric view, there is constant questioning, but some of the questions require students to research and grow to answer these questions. Poirier seems to be suggesting that the questions are only questions that are making students think and grow. From my understanding, there is no outside research, once that question is asked, the teachers know they can answer it and students do not require some random or obscure piece of knowledge. The growth has already happened.

References

Bear, Leroy L., (2000). “Jagged Worldviews Colliding.” In Battiste, Marie, (Eds.), Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision (pp. 77-85). University of British Columbia Press.

Poirier, Louise. (2007). Teaching mathematics and the Inuit community. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education 7(1), 53-67, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14926150709556720

TEDx Talks. (2018, July 24). Mathematics is the sense you never knew you had | Eddie Woo | TEDxSydney [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXwStduNw14