Thursday, October 3, 2013

ethnomathematics

"What is Ethnomathematics?" "At its inception, Ethnomathematics as an epistemology emerged in response to a longstanding history of disclosing a deliberate devaluation of the mathematics developed and and expanded by non-European civilizations... Early accounts on the history of mathematics are fraught with chronological and epistemological trajectories depicting mathematics as a creation of Western civilizations that conquered and dominated the entire world. Bishop (1990) described Western mathematics as "one of the most powerful weapons in the imposition of Western culture" (p.52). In a similar vein, D'Ambrosio asserted: [When talking about Western mathematics] especially in relation to Aboriginal's or Afro-American's or other non-European people's, to oppressed workers and marginalized classes, this brings the memory of the conqueror, the slave-owner, in other words, the dominator; it also refers to a form of knowledge that was built by him, the dominator, and that he used and still uses to exercise his dominance. (As cited in Vithal & Valero, 2003, p.547) "However, new perspectives on the history of mathematics that challenge the "classical" Eurocentric views have recently emerged acknowledging and emphasizing the contributions of non-Western indigenous to the development of science and mathematics (Ernest, 2009, Joseph, 2011). Such meta-narratives and discourses legitimize the epistemological vision advanced by Ethnomathematics and have inspired many researchers and educators around the globe to recognize the need to demand respect and human dignity for communities on which Western knowledge and values have been imposed." P.197-198, "Ethnomathematics in the Classroom," by Iman Chahine, THE BRILLIANCE OF BLACK CHILDREN IN MATHEMATICS: Beyond the Numbers and Toward a New Discourse, edited by Jacqueline Leonard and Danny B. Martin (2013).