Mathematics Education and Indigenous Perspectives
Personally, I have never had very good experiences in math classes in any grade. Math has just never been my thing, my brain doesn’t think that way. From what I have experienced, math classes favour the students who are already good at it but often times if a student is struggling they will only continue to do so and fall behind or they will not quite grasp what they are doing. I had never realized how biased and colonialized mathematics was until listening to the last lecture on numeracy. The math curriculum does not seem to even attempt to accommodate students whose math systems are different than what is seen as ‘normal’ in schools today. I actually found it very interesting to hear about the Inuit math system and I think it is important to acknowledge other math systems in classrooms even when they are no students who follow that system. We learn about different cultures and stories in English and Social Studies classes so why not learn about it in math too to allow for a more safe, comfortable, and inclusive classroom environment.
One of the biggest takeaways from Louise Poirier’s article is that while mathematics is something that everyone everywhere uses, it is not a universal language like we used to assume it was. For Inuit communities, they learn and understand mathematics in extremely different ways than we are used to:
- Inuit mathematics is set in a base-20 system, completely different from our base-10 system,
- Inuit students have a very deep sense of space and spatial relations within mathematics,
- and Inuit mathematics teaching is based on oral teaching and speaking rather than western ideas of writing everything down and using calculators to do work rather than thinking everything in your head.
Just about every idea of Inuit mathematics actively challenges Eurocentric and colonial views of teaching and learning mathematics and the ways in which mathematics are applied in both the classroom and in the outside world and everyday situations.
Sources Referenced:
Louise Poirier (2007) Teaching mathematics and the Inuit community,
Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 7:1, 53-67, DOI:
10.1080/14926150709556720
One thought on “Mathematics Education and Indigenous Perspectives”
Hello, Memphis
It is important to recognize everyone’s differences when it comes to math. I am an individual who really enjoys math and has had some great experiences but with great experiences bad experiences usually came along. I really enjoyed reading about your experience due to it making me realize not everyone has had the same experiences in math. I agree with your statement about how “the subject seems to favour students who are already good at it”. You connected to the readings really well throughout your post! I think it’s crucial that you mentioned how the reading explains that the math curriculum doesn’t try to accommodate students whose mathematical systems differ from those used in “normal” schools which is something that all future teachers need to be aware of and be able to deal with.
One suggestion I have that would enhance your overall post is you could have expanded on the Inuit math system’s benefits and how it could improve the current math curriculum. Something that came to mind while reading your post was how crucial it is to acknowledge and learn about different math systems, but it is equally important to ensure that students understand the fundamental concepts of the math curriculum in their region.
Overall, you did a great job in expresses your own experiences and connecting back to the readings. You thoroughly highlighted the importance of recognizing diverse math systems in classroom. Your post gave off some excellent ideas to why the math curriculum needs to become more inclusive, and learning about different math systems can help achieve that goal! Good work!