ECS 203 Blog Post #6- Tegan Naumann

After reading the two articles Jagged Worldviews Collided by Leroy Little Bear and Teaching Mathematics and the Inuit Community by Lousie Poirier and watching the lecture Curriculum as a Numeracy by Gale Russell I was able to gain a deep understanding of how Aboriginal views challenge Eurocentric ideas on mathematics. In high school, I would not be overly excited for math but I did not hate math. This is because math is straightforward and does not have rules or terms that would complicate anything, it was basic and everything just came together to make sense. Math does get hard and harder as you go which was a downfall for me. But thankfully my teacher was able to come up with creative ideas and activities for the class to do in order to help us understand math better because it was not just me who was struggling. This showed me that there is not always one way to do things in the mathematical world. It is important for teachers to show their students different ways of approaching topics and find creative ideas to carry them out. 


Bear's article mentioned how Aboriginal values and customs come from Aboriginal Philosophy. One Aboriginal value is an organization which can be seen as a spider web. How their ideas are always connected to one another. The Eurocentric way is very different because they value linear progression. Bear states, "The Western European concept of time is a good example of linearly. Time begins somewhere way back there and follows a linear progression from A to B to C to D" (pg. 6). Bear was able to give a great example of Eurocentric values which shows the difference between the two perspectives.  


While reading Poirier's article a lot of topics stood out to me and caused me to think critically about Aboriginal perspectives. One thing that stood out was how in the Inuit community the3 teachers taught the students math in their own laungague until grade three. when they got to grade three they were to pick between Emgloish or French. By corperating their own laungage the kids were able to have emotion and a p[ersonal attachment to math. Poirer stated in Teacging Mathematics and th Inuit Community, "Furthermore, their everyday world has nothing to do with the mathematical world studied in school. They do not perceive mathematics as something that can help them solve everyday problems" (pg. 54-55). Aboriginal peoples culture is based on spiritual connection, belonging, obligation and responsibility to care for their land, their people and their environment. With this they do not see how math can fit in with their day to day lives and practises. 


After watching The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie I was able to relate it my myself. I remmember in highschool my engish class watching this Ted Talk and an activity with a exit slip. When teaching about different cultures around the world it is important to not tell one part of the story but the whole story or the whole truth. Chimamanda’s speech caused me to think about on diversity in the classroom and how important it is not to just show the one perspective to a story but to look at all perspectives. In my highschool we did not have “culture days” but I think the teachers did a very good job at treaty education. The school also put on activities like have Aboriginal people from a band come in and do a drum circle or have orange shirt day. Since my highschool was a grade 6-12 school, I thought that is was awesome how we were able to incorporate younger students into those activities. Also the elementary school would sometimes join in witht he activities as well.


Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 19, 2023 at 6:42 PM

    Tegan, I agree with you that I didn’t mind math in highschool, because it was quite straightforward. I really liked your example of how Indigenous ideas are all connected to each other, like a spiderweb, whereas Eurocentric worldviews are more linear. I also agree with you that learning math in one’s own language helps the student feel more connected and interested in it.
    Amaya

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