ERIC Number: EJ1263360
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1927-6117
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Incorporating Culture in the Curriculum: The Concept of Probability in Nunavik Inuit Culture
Savard, Annie; Manuel, Dominic; Lin, Terry Wan Jung
in education, v19 n3 p152-171 Spr 2014
Traditionally, Canadian Inuit have lived in the circumpolar regions of Canada and those who still live in these regions, have their own cultures, which they tend to celebrate in their educational curricula. Inuit culture reflects their traditional lifestyle, when they were nomadic, and hunted and fished to survive in incredibly difficult conditions. These cultural differences present many challenges and issues to some mathematical concepts; for instance, for Nunavik Inuit, the concept of probability has no formal definition and it does not take the same meaning as in conventional mathematics. This misalignment could cause negative effects on students' learning. Looking to bridge the gap between those two different cultural meanings, the principal investigator, Annie Savard, with the assistance of Inuit educators designed learning situations based on the traditional Inuit culture. We used an ethnomathematical model (Savard, 2008b) to frame the learning situations created. In this article, we present the learning situations created that aimed to bridge Nunavik Inuit culture and the development of probabilistic reasoning and we discuss how these learning situations supported students' mathematical understanding and cultural identity.
Descriptors: Eskimo Aleut Languages, Eskimos, Mathematics Instruction, Learning Processes, Foreign Countries, Canada Natives, Life Style, Indigenous Knowledge, Cultural Differences, Instructional Design, Culturally Relevant Education, Teaching Methods, Probability, Thinking Skills, Self Concept, Educational Games, Mathematical Concepts, Grade 3, Elementary School Students
University of Regina, Faculty of Education. Education Building, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S 0A2. e-mail: editor@ineducation.ca; Web site: https://ineducation.ca/ineducation
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Grade 3; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A