Week Ten: Challenging the Eurocentric Way
In my own experiences there were aspects where it was oppressive and/or discriminating for other students, I cannot really say in any way did I really feel this way. One way where I found that students were feeling this way was through certain questions that were not overly open ended and in a way restricted. There were many factors to why students felt this way such as some were students who were not originally from my town. By posing a question that involves certain gender, names, places and more, it is clear you have now put a limitation on the question you are asking. It makes it oppressive or discriminating because someone may not have that same experience as others and as a result, cannot answer the question as effectively. In Gale’s EMTH 217 that I had last semester we focused on the idea of composing open ended questions that undoubtedly, will help me in my future as an educator. “Any individual within a culture is going to have his or her own personal interpretation of the collective cultural code” (p.77) demonstrates how someone who has had those experiences and is apart of the certain culture you are talking about in the question will be better able to answer the question compared to someone who has never heard about it. I never really thought about this idea until I had Gale last semester in a class and then in her presentation. I have always just done math the way I was “suppose” to do it and have never asked questions. All in all, this is the only way I can think of that I found in my own experiences that could have been oppressive and/or discriminating in my mathematic experiences.
Throughout Poirier’s article there were many ways the Inuit mathematics challenged Eurocentric ideas about the purpose of math and the way we are learning it. This source creates meaning and understanding that influence the Indigenous peoples numeration system. It allows us to really get involved and while doing so, be able to see how the Indigenous peoples numeration system is used and why. I see how it was challenged through their language, teaching methods and how they use base 20.
Language: They teach mathematics in their language for the first few years of their schooling. “Although they learn mathematics first in Inuktitut, from Grade 3 onwards to the end of high school, they have been learning mathematics in either French or English only” (p.55). They used to only teach in their language until grade 2 and then have to switch over to English or French due to our Canadian policies within the school; however, they are now able to teach in their language one year longer until grade 3. That extra year can have everlasting impacts on the students and allow them to really understand and appreciate their own language. There is oral representations of numbers in Inuit mathematics where each number has a different form according to the context. However, in Eurocentric mathematics 2 + 2 always equals 4 and there is no other answer. It is clear that the Inuits are inevitably still learning mathematics just in a bit of a different introduction to it than an Eurocentric way.
Base 20: This is the main idea that popped in my head when I thought of how the Inuit mathematics challenged the Eurocentric ideas of mathematics. I learned of this idea for the first time in Math 101, a University class in my first year. I came to the understanding that the Inuit use their hands and feet to do their mathematics which is called base 20, whereas, an Eurocentric way we our hands essentially, which is called base 10.
Teaching method: An Eurocentric way of teaching math is through pencil and paper practices and instead Inuit teachings are based on the ‘natural’ ways of learning. We give them a problem and they solve it in their note book and then we solve it on the board as a class and see where we made mistakes or are not understanding. Basically, this is how I learned math. For the Inuit they learn math in a different way. “Traditional Inuit teaching is based on observing an elder or listening to enigmas. These enigmas can be clues for problem solving in mathematics” (p.56). Therefore, they learn through people that are not their typical school teacher. It is also noted that in school they are not posed with typical questions that a student may not know but instead that is an Eurocentric way of teaching. Instead they are able to see what the students do and don’t know through communication and experiences that they find alternative ways to adapt and make their classroom a learning atmosphere.
Bear, L. L. (2000). Jagged worldviews colliding. In M. Batiste (Ed.), Reclaiming Indigenous voice and vision (pp. 77-85). UBC Press. Retrieved from http://ecs210.wikispaces.com/file/view/Little_Bear_Jagged_Worldviews_Colliding.pdf/609038221/Little_Bear_Jagged_Worldviews_Colliding.pdf Poirier, L. (2007). Teaching mathematics and the Inuit community. In Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 7(1), p. 53-67. Retrieved from http://ecs210.wikispaces.com/file/view/Poirier%282007%29%20Teaching%20mathematics%20and%20the%20Inuit%20community.pdf/609038285/Poirier%282007%29%20Teaching%20mathematics%20and%20the%20Inuit%20community.pd
