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?
I heard a story from an older family friend recently that made me reflect on my school experiences and I realized it was also very true for my school. She went to school in a small town in Saskatchewan and said that she was good at math and she didn’t understand how other people could do bad at math. She didn’t understand how her fellow students couldn’t understand or grasp such simple concepts. To her these may have been simple, because she was of the majority, a white student whose first language was English. What I learned in our lecture on Wednesday was that some Indigenous Languages do not follow a base ten number system like English does. Considering this, it makes sense why some students in Saskatchewan would not understand math as easily. Math in schools was not set up for them to succeed if English wasn’t their first language and they were not accommodated for either. In this way I believe they were discriminated against because of their culture and first language.
Identify at least three ways in which Inuit mathematics challenge Eurocentric ideas about the purposes of mathematics and the way we learn it.
- Up until more recently, math has been seen as a universal language, as Poirier says, “2 plus 2 will always equal 4” (Poirier, 2007, 54). But the Inukitut language does not have the same number system as we do. They do not use a base-10 system but they rather use a base-20 system. This challenges the Eurocentric views because it shows that math is not universal and different cultures and languages may think differently than Eurocentric and westernized school systems teach.
- Traditional Inuit ways of teaching vary from traditional Eurocentric and western ways of teaching. They do not emphasize lecture style lessons and sitting in desks put in rows like Eurocentric education does. Inuit ways emphasize learning by observing and doing. It also emphasizes storytelling and oral tellings as a way of passing on knowledge.
- The third way that Inuit math challenges Eurocentric math is that the Inuit culture does not believe that math had any importance in their everyday lives. In Eurocentric schools, kids often ask what the point of learning complex math is and the teachers always answer with, you will use it every day. In Inuit mathematics, the teachers do not push the idea that they will have to use it in their everyday lives because there are other ways to solve everyday problems.
Bear, L. L. (2000). Jagged worldviews colliding. In M. Batiste (Ed.), Reclaiming Indigenous voice and vision (pp. 77-85). UBC Press.
Poirier, L. (2007). Teaching mathematics and the Inuit community, Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 7(1), p. 53-67.
Hey Zoe, I thoroughly enjoyed your blog post, especially the beginning. As it was very open, personal and showcases values we have learned throughout this semester. As one of the biggest things we as soon to be teachers have learned from this course is the importance of questioning values of inclusion in the curriculum, teaching policies and subject areas we as teachers use with our student. I do believe that you will be a great teacher because you are aware that change is needed in order to improve.