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?

Looking back at my previous school experiences with math, I do not feel it was discriminatory towards anyone in terms of their culture, beliefs, etc… because in my school there was not much diversity in the demographic of our school, which was primarily white. If there was however, someone from a different culture who thought of math differently (such as counting in different bases) I can only assume the teachers would label them as incompetent (lowering their self-esteem) and force them to follow the math conventions of our school. However, in my school, if there was a student who had struggles grasping a math concept, the teacher would not explain it in a different way in order for them to understand. This student would either continue to struggle throughout the rest of their schooling or have to pay for a tutor, and because math is a cumulative subject, kids who struggled early on in school struggled with it throughout high school.

Identify at least three ways in which Inuit mathematics challenge Eurocentric ideas about the purposes of mathematics and the way we learn it.

Through the lecture and reading Poirier’s article, my eyes were opened to the fact that math can be taught, understood, and used differently than what I had previously experienced. In Math 101, I was taught how to add and subtract in different bases and I was frustrated because I did not understand why I would ever need to learn this. I now know that counting in different bases can be helpful when teaching different cultures, such as Inuit who use base 20. The Inuit also use oral and observation teaching methods rather than using the traditional pen-paper-testing. Also, unlike our traditional number system, the Inuit number system has different words for a single number in various contexts and they do not have symbols to represent these numbers other than spelling it out. A more commonly found aspect of Inuit mathematics is in that of measuring–rather than using a specific number measurement, they may measure in relation to a part of the body such as your arm or hand.

This week I have grown to understand that just because someone has a different way of looking at a topic, such as math, it doesn’t mean they are wrong. That individual may be understanding it at a much deeper level than you do, or transform knowledge into the contexts of their own culture. This is definitely something I will think about in my future classroom instead of just jumping to the conclusion that they can’t do it.