ERIC Number: EJ941278
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Nov
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1954
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Politics in an Indian Canyon? Some Thoughts on the Implications of Ethnomathematics
Pinxten, Rik; Francois, Karen
Educational Studies in Mathematics, v78 n2 p261-273 Nov 2011
Working with Navajo Indian informants in Arizona, USA we became aware of the capabilities of children and adults to find their way in vast and clearly "chaotic" canyons. One thing we did was describe what people actually did and said about their ways to find the way back home in such contexts. A second one was to use these data in order to build a curriculum book for a bicultural school on the Navajo reservation. We start from this example to ask what the political choices are, which we confront when working with such material: how much mathematics (or is it Mathematics) is needed in daily life? And what mathematics should we promote or develop, without becoming colonialist again? In Section 2, we discuss the meaning and the status of ethnomathematics, proposing that it would be the generic category which allows for a more systematic and comparative study of the whole domain of mathematical practices. In Section 3, we introduce the concept of multimathemacy (after multiliteracy) to discuss the political agenda of ethnomathematics. We argue that multimathemacy should be the basis of the curriculum in order to guarantee optimal survival value for every learner.
Descriptors: Navajo (Nation), Mathematics, American Indian Education, Reservation American Indians, Biculturalism, American Indian Culture, Navigation, Indigenous Knowledge, Geographic Location, Curriculum Development, Mathematics Education, Ethnography, Multiple Literacies, Instructional Materials, Mathematics Curriculum, Politics of Education
Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: service-ny@springer.com; Web site: http://www.springerlink.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Arizona
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A