Ethnomathematics:
Mathematics from Non-Traditional Environments
 
 


 
  "... our task is not to teach students to think -- they can already think; but to exchange our ways of thinking with each other and look together for better ways of approaching the decodification of an object."

- Paulo Freire

ISGEm Newsletter 6,(2)
 
 


decodification:

to decode into an intelligible form
 
 


 
 

A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it. This new civilization brings with it new family styles; changing ways of working, loving, and living; a new economy; new political conflicts; and beyond all this an altered consciousness as well. Pieces of this new civilization exist today. Millions are already attuning their lives to the rhythms of tomorrow. Others, terrified of the future, are engaged in a desperate, futile flight into the past and are trying to restore the dying world that gave them birth … The dawn of this civilization is the single most explosive fact of our lifetimes.

- Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave
 
 
 
 
 
  A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house that I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... but the world may be a different place because I was important in the life of a student.

- Anon.

Thompson, C. L. & Rudolph, L.B. (Fourth Edition) Counseling Children. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What is Ethnomathematics?
 
 

Ethnomathematics forms the intersection between mathematics and cultural anthropology. The term was coined by Professor Ubiratan D’Ambrosio of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil. Ethnomathematics has its roots in the ideas and philosophy of the respected Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire.

Many ethnomathematicans seek to document the kind of math being used by indigenous people throughout the world. As well, Ethnomathematics possesses strong links to multicultural mathematics.

Many ethnomathematicans are involved in active research, that is documenting and empowering people through the mathematics that they have traditionally used for centuries.

Ethnomathematics includes:

- Cultural-related learning styles

- Historical developments in mathematics and technology

- Prominent people in various cultural contexts who have made contributions to the field of mathematics

- Cultural applications of "nontraditional" mathematics

- Various forms of mathematics that may draw upon the interests, abilities, and talents of all students.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 Workplace in the 21st Century -

... less manual but more mental, less mechanical but more electronic , less routine but more verbal, less static but more varied ... More than ever before, Americans need to think for a living, and more than ever before, they need to think mathematically.

-National Research Council, 1989, 1-2
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

… a person is a cognizant being who functions within the language and interpretive codes of their sociocultural group. A language is a code understandable only to people who have participated in common past experiences. Each language expresses a way of knowing developed by a group of human beings. One way of knowing is mathematics. Mathematical knowledge expressed in the language code of a given sociocultural group is called "ethnomathematics." In this context "ethno" and "mathematics" should be taken in the broad sense. "Ethno" should be understood as referring to cultural groups, and not as the anachronistic concept of race; "mathematics" should be seen as a set of activities such as ciphering, measuring, classifying, ordering, inferring, and modeling.

Borba, M. (1990). "Ethnomathematics and education." For The Learning of Mathematics (10)1: 39-43.
 
 
 
 
 
 

The former, let us say spontaneous, abilities have been downgraded, repressed, and forgotten while the learned ones have not (yet) been assimilated either as a consequence of a learning blockage, or of an early drop-out, or even as a consequence of failure or many other reasons. Mathematics in schools shall be such that it facilitates knowledge, understanding, incorporation and compatibilization if known and current popular practices into the curriculum. In other words, recognition and incorporation of ethnomathematics into the curriculum. It is necessary to identify within ethnomathematics a structured body of knowledge.
 
 

D’Ambrosio, U. (1985). Ethnomathematics and its place in the history and pedagogy of mathematics. For the Learning of Mathematics. 5(1): 44-48.