Awakening the Mind: Indigenizing mathematics through local story

Date
2020-11-03
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Abstract
This dissertation is a story sprouted from re-connecting and re-membering my mixed Indigenous roots through a (seemingly) simple questioning of mathematics. As I began to explore the cultural components of mathematics, I became interested in the more human, holistic, community, land-based, and spiritual aspects of mathematics. This research, inspired by ethnomathematics was explored through a methodology as based on the sweetgrass braid. This braiding methodology allows multiple ways of knowing mathematics—Indigenous/land-based, personal, and mainstream—to be weaved together through equity, to guide and empower participants (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) to explore and experience mathematics through methods of observation, experience, and spirit, which are based upon an Indigenous theory of the Circle of Life. The research was explored and is presented through weaving together different methods of inquiry, experiencing, and understanding through art, story, and text. This research was guided by Treaty 7 Elders and Knowledge Keepers, who gifted stories to a class of Grade 4 students, their teacher, and myself as researcher. These stories allowed students to explore mathematics with the land, through personal history, culture, and body, while connecting to mainstream mathematical concepts. Many students who showed a disconnect with mathematics at the beginning, surprised themselves by finding and understanding mathematical concepts through the Indigenous stories, outside of the classroom, through personal experience, and on the land. From these stories arose a transformation as students began to see themselves in mathematics. By understanding through multiple ways of knowing, not only can creativity and innovation arise, but so can humility, agency, and humanity. This story created a space for a community to experience and understand Indigenizing mathematics in a class, on Treaty 7 Turtle Island, as achieved through an Indigenous methodology resulting in the sweetgrass braiding pedagogy created for and with community.
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Keywords
Indigenous ways of knowing, Ethnomathematics, Story, Treaty 7
Citation
Czuy, K. (2020). Awakening the Mind: Indigenizing mathematics through local story (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.