Report on Ethnomathematics Research

Joanna O. Masingila, Syracuse University
jomasing@sued.syr.edu

There are a variety of researchers doing research work in the area of ethnomathematics. In this article I will describe some current research by several researchers in North America. In future articles in this column, I will report on research in the area of ethnomathematics by researchers in various countries. If you know of researchers doing ethnomathematics research, please send me this information either by mail (215 Carnegie, Syracuse, NY 13244-1150 USA) or by email (jomasing@sued.syr.edu).

Mary (Betsy) Brenner, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, is exploring the distinction between everyday problem solving and mathematicians' problem solving practices by examining how students use the two modes of problem solving in the context of small group discussions. For this study, she and her colleagues are working with students in two seventh-grade classrooms that are using a curriculum unit that was designed to introduce mathematical concepts involving variables and equations in the context of a thematic problem solving unit.

Marta Civil, from the University of Arizona, is working with colleagues to try to develop mathematics classroom communities in predominantly minority classrooms. In these communities, they are engaging children in doing mathematics (like mathematicians) by working on open ended, investigative situations, sharing ideas and strategies, and jointly negotiating meanings. Civil and her colleagues also are working to have these communities develop from the students' backgrounds and their experiences with everyday mathematics in an effort to bridge the gap between outside and inside school experiences. Data about the students' everyday mathematics experiences are collected through household visits.

Sabrina Hancock, from the University of Georgia, recently examined the mathematics practices of four seamstresses. Her research study describes the mathematics she recognized in the skills, thinking, and strategies of the seamstresses as well as documents the skills, thinking, and strategies that they attribute to mathematics. She also compares the mathematics practice of the seamstresses with the mathematics practices of other tradespersons.

Steven Guberman, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, is examining how students understand and transform school mathematics as influenced by their intuitive mathematical knowledge. He has been working with students in three elementary school classrooms by observing during mathematics lessons and then interviewing students about the content and goals of the lessons and how the lessons were related to their intuitive mathematics and its everyday uses.

Jon Rahn Manon, from the University of Delaware, is studying the ethnomathematics of upper elementary North American school children. He is seeking to identify children's out-of-school mathematics practice and to describe how this lived mathematics interacts with the reified mathematics of the school curriculum. He will also be examining implications for a reformed pedagogy that takes into account this out-of-school practice of children.

Joanna Masingila, from Syracuse University, is examining middle school students' perceptions of how they use mathematics outside the classroom in an attempt to learn more about and build on students' everyday mathematics practice in the classroom. Data were collected by interviews, logs, and follow-up interviews. She found that the mathematics that the students perceived that they used outside the classroom could be classified as one of the six activities that Bishop has called the six fundamental mathematical activities. She is also examining the influence of the students' perceptions of what is mathematics on their perceptions of how they use mathematics.

Michelle McGinn, from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, recently completed a case study investigating the mathematical activity of two elementary school teachers in different contexts of their everyday lives, inside and outside their classrooms. She found that the teachers' everyday mathematics practice revealed a marked contrast from mathematics practice legitimated in classrooms, including their own classrooms.

Judit Moschkovich, from the Institute for Research on Learning in Palo Alto, California, has been working on examining the theoretical assumptions underlying two perspectives of mathematics practice: everyday mathematics and mathematician's mathematics. She has been examining in detail which aspects of school mathematics are compatible with different aspects of everyday mathematics and mathematician's mathematics with the goal of building a coherent conceptual framework for understanding mathematical practices in different communities and for designing classroom environments.

Andee Rubin and Andrew Boyd, from TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are doing research in a setting where they think it is possible for everyday mathematics and mathematician's mathematics to coexist in a natural and important interdependence. Their research is part of the VIEW project at TERC (Video for Exploring the World) and they are studying how learners make mathematical sense of motion phenomena in a Video Based Laboratory setting in which their own movements become mathematical data through computer and video technology.

Jim Barta, from Georgia Southern University, will be starting a two phase project with the Seminole people (Florida) to examine from an ethnomathematical perspective, traditional (historical) daily activities in which mathematical principles were embedded. Phase I will be to interview a number of Seminole tribal members, beginning with three well-placed tribal cultural/educational directors and representatives who have knowledge of the daily living practices of their ancestors. They have agreed to facilitate additional contact and interviews with a number of other tribal members (Cultural Center Site Directors, Seminole School Administrators, craftspeople, and elders). The accounts and descriptions they provide will be examined to identify mathematical knowledge and principles necessary to complete such activities. Phase II (to be carried out at a later date) will be predicated on the knowledge base developed resulting from Phase I. Its focus will be to design culturally inclusive mathematics curriculum in collaboration with teachers at the Ahfachkee (Seminole) Elementary School in Clewiston, Florida for their elementary students. Ultimately, the research will impact 72 Ahfachkee Seminole Elementary students.

If readers are interested in contacting any of the researchers listed above, contact me and I will provide you this information.