Abstract
What are the effects of teaching the dominant mathematics on the wholeness and integrity of the cultural, social and linguistic resources of diverse communities? In this text, I seek to capture the risks associated with utilising non-Western resources in the teaching of the dominant mathematics in order to elucidate possible types of harms that conventional mathematics education could cause to various non-Western communities. In particular, I challenge various dominant theoretical views that endorse the employment of the social, cultural and linguistic (re)sources of others to teach and learn mathematics, without paying similar or even deeper ethical attention to the mutual and reciprocal effects of the taught and learnt mathematics. I propose an epistemology of interrelationships; I call attention to possible harms caused by utilising the social, cultural and linguistic (re)sources of some non-Western communities as part of the teaching and learning of dominant school mathematics on the same (re)sources of those communities.
Highlights
In the hope of building a more just society, Rorty (1999) explains that, instead of increasing our philosophical sophistication, we need to have “our attention called to the harm we have been doing without noticing that we are doing it” (p. 237)
Moment 2 is my epiphany of where I was standing within the web of interrelationships surrounding the dominant mathematical knowledge that I was teaching; my students’ ways of knowing, seeing and imagining; and the preferential power that is held by the dominant knowledge
I shall begin by stating that I endorse utilising practices and resources of all communities for a more fair and inclusive teaching and learning of mathematics classrooms
Summary
In the hope of building a more just society, Rorty (1999) explains that, instead of increasing our philosophical sophistication, we need to have “our attention called to the harm we have been doing without noticing that we are doing it” (p. 237). I share a story in the hope of taking a step, albeit a small one, towards a more just future for mathematics teaching and learning This is a reflective and theoretical paper about my experience during the summer of 2019, when I taught a 40-h mathematics pedagogy and content course to a group of Canadian indigenous teachers. In order to begin to theorise the possible areas of harm and hope, I draw on what I call “interrelationship epistemology.” This epistemological view sees “knowledge” as constantly fluctuating in interactions and sees “becoming to know” as being entangled with ethical awareness of the web of interrelated actions and reactions, which in turn are rooted in cultures, histories and languages. Placing interrelationship epistemology at the heart of my analysis and reflection, I describe the ways in which my act of teaching could have caused harm to the integrity and wholeness of my students’ cultures and to the histories of their community
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