Summary:
The article is written by mathematics educator, Lisa Lunney Borden, who had worked in an aboriginal secondary school in Mikmaw community school in Cape Bretown, Nova Scotia for 10 years, where she has built ‘fictive kin’ with local community and developed her teaching philosophy based on the concept of ‘verbification’ of mathematics. By adopting the unique grammatical structures in Mi’Kmaq (a verb/action-based language) to support student mathematics learning, she identified it as alternative pathways to understanding mathematics concept from their cultural knowledge.
Stop 1: learning from their language and culture (verbification v.s nominalization)
Lisa realized the grammatical patterns in aboriginal language shape the way students conceived instruction, so she transitioned from asking noun-based questions to verb-based questions (verbification) by listening to the way students raised questions and modelling her instruction with similar grammar structures. Recalled from my own experience, relating to daily situation and rephrasing explanations are needed, to help students to make sense of the concept, especially for early learners, for example, when introducing vertices, edges, focuses etc. One of my early learners called a parallelogram as a rectangle which lies down (slanted) a bit, thus it is necessary to think about how to bridge what they already learnt and what they are coming to learn.
Stop 2: how cultural identity influence students’ attitudes in learning math
I like how Lisa corporated mawikinutimatimk (“come together and learn together”) as the research methodology, which raised comprehensive and inclusive concerns emerged from aboriginal community in the conversation, identified specific knowledge and uncovered the cultural component of mathematics in indigenous environments, and later she reflected these cultural components of mathematics in her teaching.
Stop 3: ethno-mathematics as a foundation
Lisa pointed out the disengagement in math learning has results conflict between aboriginal cultures (Mi'kmaw mathematical reasoning) and values embedded in school-based math curriculum. Students felt their cultures are denied which result deeper disengagement and resistance in learning. Thus, it is meaningful to encourage learning in identifying the presence of mathematic within ancestral knowledge, in such a reflective learning process, the application and appreciation of mathematics and culture would be promoted simultaneously.
Wonders:
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What are the specific aspects do math teachers need to emphasize in their math class from an indigenous perspective? How do you overcome the indigenous cultural diversity in mathematics education?
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How do math teaching practitioners develop an intercultural and contextualized design for mathematical education? Are there any resources or organizations that you are familiar to support math learning in indigenous environment? Are we (as mathematics educators) doing enough?
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Reference:
Lunney Borden, L. (2009). The “Verbification” of Mathematics. Proceedings of the 33rd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics, Thessaloniki, Greece.
What an interesting view in this article. It is so important to make our teachings relatable to the students, otherwise, there will be disengagement.
回复删除I look at the First People's Principle of Learning and am reminded of how they really benefit all learners in a classroom. The one that really resonates with me is "learning requires exploration of one's identity". But to specifically reach out to students of Indigenous culture, bringing in art is an entry point for me. I find that art sparks a lot of conversation around patterns. This opens up the conversation for identity and make learning relatable for the learners.
I have the same question as you for the second one. I remember looking at the curriculum and it says specifically to put fish into an array to help contextualize content for Indigenous students. I question how much this actually make sense with our population here in the lower mainland.
I think it is important to emphasize how math is used in indigenous cultures. The article I read, Poirier (2007), talks about how the math that Inuit students learn in school is different from the math in their everyday world, and the importance of using their natural ways of learning. Perhaps learning about the different ways of life of indigenous people could help students explore what concepts in math are important to indigenous cultures.
回复删除In order to develop an intercultural and contextualized design for math education, I think it is important for teachers to have a better understanding of indigenous cultures first. Poirier (2007) discusses developing activities that look into elements of Inuit culture. To help students develop their understanding of indigenous cultures, perhaps using authentic stories and books about indigenous people could be a start for elementary students.