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?
- Learning mathematics from a Western country was difficult for me because I had trouble understanding how teachers explains math lecture in the classroom as well as understanding the words and vocabularies they used as I am not familiar with their choice of words. There were times that I was affected by the idea of simply not understanding anything anymore as I have tried to listen but remained unknowledgeable about the topic and unable to grasp what the teacher is saying. Now I come to realize that It is not how well I learn (although it is part of it) but it is also because of the language barrier and the ability to comprehend something. I was having a challenging time because I find it difficult to understand their method of teaching and that I was used to how I was taught in the Philippines in my native language. I remember one of the instructors from Monday mentioned that the students’ ability to learn is founded from language that a student may interpret an idea or a word differently because of being unfamiliar about it. I did not experience any oppression or discrimination from learning math at my school because they were really helpful at making sure that I understand the lesson.
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 purposes mathematics and the way we learn it.
- The Inuit community applied “Counting: the systematic use of methods to compare and order sets of Objects" as a way to learn to count in their native language and switching it to English or French (Poirier. 56 & 59). They also use “Measuring: the used of objects or measuring tools to quantify dimensions” as a way to measure body parts such as finger and foot (56 & 60). The Inuit community also use “Games: the development of games and the more or less formal rules that the players must follow” as a way to engage the students to involve other people and make learning enjoyable (56).
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