This week’s blog post is based on the following prompts, videos and articles:
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?
After reading Poirier’s article: Teaching mathematics and the Inuit Community, identify at least three ways in which Inuit mathematics challenge Eurocentric ideas about the purpose of mathematics and the way we learn it
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.
One of the oppressive ways mathematics was taught to me was through a textbook. The textbooks used depicted colonial values and math questions, refusing to even attempt to integrate First Nation or other worldviews. Or if there was an attempt to integrate he jokes about every math textbook containing a question about a man buying fifty watermelons is an example of the lack of diversity in these books. If there’s
enough room in the classroom for a question about buying 50 watermelons, why isn’t there room for a more diverse question that could educate students on other worldviews at the same time.
It could also be oppressive in what and how we teach. As Poirier says, Inuit people traditionally learn math through stories and enigmas while in canadian schools we use a pencil and paper, which is a very euro-centric method of learning. What is learnt could also be oppressive. In school, I learnt a 10-based number system, but there are other cultures such as the Inuits and the Aztecs used a 20-based system. It should be important to make sure that students can see themselves in the subject being taught.
Innuit mathematics challenge the euro-centric math by teaching in Inuktitut in schools and using their traditional numbers system. They have built a foundation of their own culture in the students before teaching the euro-centric one. They also use their own terms for the months of the year. For example using 'when the caribou's antlers lose their velvet, ' instead of September.
Although they have adapted to using a pencil and paper to teach math, Inuit schools have also integrated the traditional story-telling and enigmas to teach students math. Aboriginal culture is traditionally passed on and taught orally, rather than through the written word. Another method that is used that represents indigenous values is not asking questions that children don’t know the answer to. I found that in my own schooling that we often wrote tests before learning the course material and again at the end of the unit. In the Inuit schools this method is not used.
Inuit culture doesn’t teach mathematics to be “ something that can help them solve everyday problems” while colonial culture very much so does and often puts pressure on students to excel in math.