Mathematics

Think back on your experiences of the teaching and learning of mathematics -- were there aspects of it that were oppressive and/or discriminating for you or other students?

This is the first time I have actually ever taken the time to notice my previous Mathematic learning experiences. Now that I think about it, I have had a really tough time trying to help my brother, who is in grade 9, with his math homework. What I learnt and was taught in math on how to solve certain questions is not what he has been taught which can be difficult to try and help him because his teacher will mark him wrong for providing different ways of solving the question that is not in the way that the teacher taught him to solve it. It needs to be understood that we all learn differently, and some students may understand the math being taught but struggle in finding out a way of proving that they do and putting it all down on paper and solving it in a way that the teacher considers it correct. As for myself, I understood the math, but I have never been good at proving that I do and I always went wrong somewhere in my steps, or I would miss a step and get the entire question wrong. Or I would teach myself a different way of solving the question but the teacher wouldn't accept it and only give me partial marks for my steps, although I got the correct answer for the question. I also remember in Elementary we did "Mad Minutes" which were a list of 30-40 math questions (1+6=? , 3+5=? , 8x4=? , etc.), that we had to complete in a minute. I felt stupid when I wasn't able to finish all of those questions in one minute when majority of my classmates were able to. We were then marked on them, based on the ones answered correctly we received one mark each, and we weren't given any marks for the ones we got wrong or for the ones we didn't answer. I feel that a lot of other students also felt the same way as me, incapable and incompetent. I felt that doing this was unfair to students. I was good at math in general, I just wasn't good at completing math questions as quickly as others were, I need time to be able to think about the question and not rush myself.

Identify at least three ways in which Inuit mathematics challenge Eurocentric ideas about the purposes mathematics and the way we learn it.

1. Using a base-20 numeral system. I remember being taught how to use bases in my Math 101 class in my first year of University. I had a tough time understanding it and I couldn't even imagine trying to teach this to my students.

2. Mathematics and culture. Different cultures take up different ways of teaching and understanding math than the ways that we have learnt math. I feel that there is no "one math." What we have learned in math (learning how to calculate percentage for example), can be used in everyday lives (determining what 20% of %18.00 is), the kind of mathematics used in other cultures, like Inuit cultures, can't necessarily be used in their everyday lives.

3. Spatial relations. I feel that where you live really effects what you learn in math and how you are taught math, and I feel that your overall school experience is determined by where you live and what culture you live in. In different places around the world different things are taught in math and some students may learn more in math than others do.