Connecting Ethnomathematics and Modelling: a mixed methods study to understand the dialogic approach of Ethnomodelling

Abstract

This research on ethnomodelling was conducted in both a state public school and in a local farmers’ market in a metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, in Brazil. The main objective of this study was to identify how dialogic approaches of ethnomodelling could contribute to the process of re-signification of function concepts learned by 38 students in the second year of high school during their interaction with a local farmer and his labor practices. Another objective was to understand the importance of cultural conceptions and elaboration of ethnomodels extracted from the mathematical practices developed by this farmer for use as a pedagogical action in the classrooms. For the data collection, three blocks of activities were used, two questionnaires (initial and final), a semi-structured interview with the farmer, a seminar with students and the farmer, and the teacher-researcher fieldnotes. The collected data, both of a quantitative and qualitative nature, were analyzed simultaneously with the use of the Mixed Method Study through a QUAN + QUAL design. After this analysis, qualitative data were quantified in order to enable the interpretation of the results through the elaboration of three categories School Environment, Out-of-School Environment and Dialogical Environment. The results of this study show that ethnomodelling provides an integrative approach to school mathematics curriculum by considering both the emic and etic mathematical knowledge through the development of a dialogic approach that shows the relevance of its cultural dynamism.