After reading Rosa and Orey’s ‘Ethnomathematics: The Cultural Aspects of Mathematics’ (2011) (2011), I have learned about the different importance and benefits of using ethnomathematics approach in education. Integrating a culturally relevant curriculum is a way of showing respect for the cultural identities and languages of the students. Saying that culture can be part of the mathematics curriculum will pave the way to make mathematics a part of daily life as well.
The paper also debunked the idea that mathematics is free from societal influence as it mentions studies proving the effect of cultural factors on the learning and teaching of math. Apparently, the math that we learn from school is not a product of pure logical thinking but of prior knowledge and skills and new cultural inputs (Rosa & Orey, 2011). However, the paper also notes the discrepancy between today’s informal and academic mathematics. Some people know how to mentally solve street-context problems but are struggling in school math. Not surprisingly, a lot of students have low performance in mathematics because of the lack of cultural relevance in the curriculum. What should we aim for is to produce teachers that can
“facilitate a mathematics learning environment grounded in real life experiences and to support students in the social construction of mathematical knowledge.”
(Rosa & Orey, 2011)
How do we even begin? A teacher-student dialogue can be a good start in order to find what cultural experiences of the students actually have connections to math. Moreover, the teacher can also investigate the traditions and mathematical practices of a particular group and find how mathematical lessons and examples can incorporate these ideas. The goal is to
“engage the student’s imagination; help them to develop skills in critical thinking and analysis that can be applied to all areas of life, and to provide and effective environment for developing skills to solve real-world problems.”
(Rosa & Orey, 2011)
In short, teaching ethnomathematics to students make them succeed in academic mathematics as well. Again, this is something new for me. After years of teaching and tutoring, I now realise that all this time I was just trying to feed students with techniques and formulas that they may not even use in real life. This is probably why a lot of our students in the mathematics training program where I was a part of just quit from the program. They were probably not seeing the importance of the lessons in their daily activities. When they think of math, they only think of the subject that they study in school, but once they’re outside, they don’t know how to use the learning.
I want to embrace the concept, but I am apprehensive because learning about the different cultures of students in Australia will take a lot of time and effort, and textbook lessons and activities are so much easier to use. I think ethnomathematics will be better analysed and implemented if a new curriculum based on it will be designed. While waiting for that to happen, it’s up to teachers on how to contextualise learning now based on cultural experiences. The paper of Rosa and Orey cited numerous researches that reinforce the importance of ethnomathematics. What I want to find next is a research that will show a concrete example of a culturally relevant mathematics teaching for me to think of my own applications in the Australian classroom.
Reference:
Rosa, M., & Orey, D. C. (2011). Ethnomathematics: the cultural aspects of mathematics. Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatemática, 4(2), 32-54.
Ethnomathematics 