The importance of culture in mathematics
“Decontextualised knowledge is literally meaningless.” (Bishop, 1988 p. 187)
I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. If I were told a piece of information that has no meaning, I can-not relate to it, or has no relevance to anything in my life, then it is meaningless to me. I will forget that piece of information. This I believe holds true to students in a classroom including when learning maths concepts.
A teacher must relate the curriculum content to something in each child’s life or it will seem worthless to the child. This is tricky as there are many students in a classroom that the teacher must consider and connect the learning to. Not only this, but it must be done through the students eyes and not what the teacher sees. Begg, (2001 p. 73) writes that teachers “need to consider the influence of beliefs, of language, of the metaphors used in language that help determine thought patterns. And we (teachers) need to be aware of the ways people (of different cultures) come to know, of the traditional and current ways that learning/schooling occurs, and what the people of the culture(s) value.” Begg (2001 p. 73) also reminds us that western teachers particularly need to be acutely aware of their own views as for a long time the western culture has overlooked other cultures as the unimportant minority. This is dangerous for a teacher, as to disrespect another culture is harmful to all other cultures and these students will instantly lose motivation.
To assist teachers, Bishop (1988 p. 182) has identified six fundamental mathematical activities that each culture engages in. These are counting, locating, measuring, designing, playing, explaining and are necessary and sufficient for the development of mathematical knowledge (Bishop 1988 p. 182). To use these activities from each student’s culture would allow for real connections to be made. This is ethnomathematics – the relationship between culture and maths. Teachers must be aware of it or the consequences will be the students learning..........a teachers sole purpose.
References
Begg, A. (2001). Ethnomathematics: Why, and What Else? 33(3), 71-74. Retrieved from http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/838/art%253A10.1007%252FBF02655697.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Flink.springer.com%2Farticle%2F10.1007%2FBF02655697&token2=exp=1464590004~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F838%2Fart%25253A10.1007%25252FBF02655697.pdf%3ForiginUrl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Flink.springer.com%252Farticle%252F10.1007%252FBF02655697*~hmac=3dc1da4d241c8cd89f93d92025c79b60c4ad7ae337e694773670ca9427968d75
Bishop, A. (1988). Mathematics Education in Its Cultural Context. Educational Studies in Mathematics,19(2), 179-191. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.cdu.edu.au/stable/3482573