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EPS 810 Final

  • 2 days ago
  • 7 min read

Indigenous Community Based Spaces:

Natural Sites of Mathematical Inquiry

Pōsōh, I am Madeline Blong, a citizen of the Menominee Nation, a B.A. in Mathematics and American Indian studies, and a current PhD student studying Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. This blog post will summarize my findings from an assignment in an "Education and Reistance in Commmunity Based Spaces" course, and present ideas for math lessons regarding the future of mathematics and its grounding in Indigenous pedagogies in Wisconsin. First, I would like each and everyone of my readers to start by pondering what spaces they have learned math in throughout their lives. Then, fill in the poll below.





Where did you learn math?

  • In a classroom

  • At home

  • In a community based space

  • All of the above



Odds are that when you were learning mathematics as a child, whether you knew it or not, you probably were engaging in math learning in every space you walked into.



Sugar Bush Camp...Math?

I remember as a child going to sugar camp with my family and having to carry all of the pails of sap to the fire. I would stand over the stove with the adults watching as the once clear watery substance turned into a golden sticky mess over the course of several hours. However, what was left was meerly a fraction of what I started with. I learned very early on that to make maple syrup you need 40 gallons of sap to make only 1 gallon of syrup. So, as we cooked and gathered we would tally up the gallons and then I would go with my mom to the store to purchase the proper ammount of quart sized mason jars. The task taught me about volume, fractions, time, and community work. But, I also learned about tree identification, reciprocity to the trees, and the respectful way to tap the trees from year to year. The lessons I learned from simply helping out at sugar camp made my time in the math classroom 10x easier. My experience learning how to make maple syrup allowed me to imagine how our daily lives teach us about math, and how incorporating our cultural ways can empower us to be enthused math learners.

So, I became curious about other spaces where Indigeous communities were learning math. These three questions address my major curiosities:


Research Question 1: Where do educators (parents, teachers, and community members), with an Indigenous student base, engage with Indigenous based mathematics?


Research Question 2: How do Indigenous educators define and enact Indigenous based math pedagogies?


Research Question 3: How do educators and students’ relationships change when Indigenous based math pedagogies are implemented?


It turns out that educators (eg., Bang; Furuto; Komea) are working with Indigenous students using Indigenous pedagogies of their specific areas around the globe. These pedagogies allow students to support one anothers learning and for the teachers to bring in culturally relavent materials.


Learning Indigenous Pedagogies



The above image is from a prior blog post where I spoke about my research incorprating Indigenous beaders on instagram with my community detection and decoding methods research. At the time, I felt that simply talking about Indigenous people while doing western math was a big step forward. However, in recent readings I have learned that math education can include so much more than just representation, but also include the voices and agency of Indigenous students. Scholar, Hunter (2019), speaks to the importance of allowing students to fully engage with one another when learning math and not simply showing them that their ideas can be represented in math. Further, Garcia-Olp (2022), shows us that Indigenous people have always been mathematicians, and brings students along the journey of building tepees and using traditional ways of measurement to find the circumference. As I continued to read about Indigenous educators I realized that they were using combinations of culturally relavent, place-based, asset-based and community-based pedagogies (Bang et al., 2016; Furuto, 2014, 2016; Garcia-Olp, 2022; Howard et al., 2003; Hunter et al., 2019). These pedagogies have allowed me to think about how I may incorporate Indigenous knowledge and pedagogies into math lessons for Menominee students.


Menominee Acivities for Math Lessons: A Brainstorm




  • Regalia making --> scaling proportions to person and fabric as a linear model

  • Sugar bush camp --> ratios with volume

  • Moon cycles --> cycles

  • Berry picking --> exponential growth and decay

  • Basket weaving --> measurement and matrices

  • and more!





Free Lesson Plans: To be Edited by Teacher


Starting a Ribbon Skirt: A Lesson on Scaling + Linnear Equations

Materials:

  • Fabric

  • Scissors

  • Sewing Needle

  • Thread

  • Ribbon

  • No-sew fabric adhesive

  • Measuring Tapes

Instructions:

  1. Write out a set of measurements for skirts in size U.S. XXS on the board.

  2. Have students use a set proportion based on U.S. standards to scale their skirt's measurements to their typical pant's sizes.

  3. Have students measure themselves and see if they should add or subtract some amount to the skirts scaled measurements to suit their own.

  4. Have the students create a linnear equation of their skirt's size using the proportion to the XXS as slope and the addition or subtraction as a y intercept (give them a chance to figure out what the slope and intercepts are first).

  5. When they complete the linnear equation give them fabric to cut out in their size (make sure to remember to add two inches on all sides for the hem!)

  6. Allow students to complete their ribbon skirts

  7. End lesson with ackowledgement that humans do not always grow proportionally, but their equations could help them predict how large to make their next skirts as they grow. (Suggest they work on a skirt to fit an older relative that may fit within the bounds of their created linear line)

Additional Notes:


This lesson was created with the knowledge that many students in the classroom already know how to make ribbon skirts and have had an introduction to linnear equations! The lesson allows students to work together using knowledge they already have (asset-based pedagogy & culturally relevant pedagogy) about skirt making and gives them an opportunity to apply their knowledge to math class. I highly reccomend, if there is time, to create a linnear regression model, along with the class to see how students actual measurements compare to the linnear model of U.S. sizing. It may allow them to better grasp their own identities by showing that clothes are not made to fit them as they may believe. I would encourage teachers to allow students to engage in that dialogue as it suits them. Additonally, by using the U.S. measurements which are already based in proportions we have easy access to a linnear equation.


Sugar Bush Camp

Materials:


  • Measuring tape

  • Maple trees

  • Tapping Spiggets

  • Mallets

  • Gallon Buckets

  • outdoor stove

  • quart sized mason jars

  • teaspoons

  • table spoons

  • measuring cups

  • pint sized mason jars

Instructions:


  1. Measure maple trees and ensure they are 32-38in in circumference

  2. Use mallet to place tapping spigget into the trees

  3. Hang buckets from the spiggets to collect sap

  4. When buckets are full collect them and bring them back to the camp stove. (determine how much sap you have)

  5. Cook sap while stirring often, add more sap as space allows. (share oral stories about how Maple syrup came to be culturally)

  6. When cooked down to a syrup consistacy, begin by having studnets use teaspoons to fill tablespons with syrup (tallying how many it takes). Then using table spoons to fill the smallest measuring cup, smallest measuring cup to next largest, and so on so forth until all syrup is in the quart sized jars and students have an understanding/tally of conversions for all of their measuring tools.

  7. Determine how many quart sized mason jars are full. Convert measurement to gallons, pints, cups, tablespoons and teaspoons.

  8. Acknowledge the proportionality between the sap and syrup

  9. Have students work on word problems that requires them to figure out how much sap someone would need to feed a family of 6 that uses 1/4 cup of syrup each for breakfast. (or any other problems of larger scale including restaurants, money per pints, table spoons, etc)

Additional Notes:


This activity allows students to get outside and practice place-based and culturally relevant learning. While participating in an activity that their ancestors have practiced for millenia, they will gain knowledge about proportions and new styles of measurement. It is encouraged to include lessons about environmental protection and food sovereignty during this process to bring in information that is temporal to the students and helps them to think about the future of their tribe!




More Lessons Coming Soon!



Concluding Remarks


Above are just two examples of how I am thinking about including Indigenous knowledge into math lessons. I intend to carry on with this practice and update you all as I continue learning more about Indigenous math education practices. It is important to remember that this work is meant for community based spaces that are supplementary to the classroom and encourage the use of traditional knowledge. While I understand that aspects of this work may fit into the curricula for public schooling, it is imperative that the educators doing this work have the capacity to allow students the time to work together to learn along the way, as well as engage intergenerationally, practice their strengths, and share their own knowledge.


Wāewāenan,

Maddie


Sources Cited


Abrams, E., Taylor, P. C., & Guo, C. J. (2013). Contextualizing culturally relevant science and mathematics teaching for indigenous learning. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 11(1), 1-21.

Bang, M., Faber, L., Gurneau, J., Marin, A., & Soto, C. (2016). Community-based design research: Learning across generations and strategic transformations of institutional relations toward axiological innovations. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 23(1), 28-41.

Furuto, L. (2016). Lessons learned: Strengths-based approaches to mathematics education in the Pacific. Journal of Mathematics and Culture, 10(2), 55-69.

Furuto, L. (2014). Pacific ethnomathematics: Pedagogy and practices in mathematics education. Teaching Mathematics and its Applications: An International Journal of the IMA, 33(2), 110–121, https://doi.org/10.1093/teamat/hru009

Garcia-Olp, M., Nelson, C., & Saiz, L. (2022). Decolonizing mathematics curriculum and pedagogy: Indigenous knowledge has always been mathematics education.  Educational Studies, 58(1), 1-16.

Howard, P., Perry, B., Lowe, K., Ziems, S., & McKnight, A. (2003). Mathematics in Indigenous contexts: A case study. Mathematics Education Research: Innovation, Networking, Opportunity, 436-443.

Hunter, R., Hunter, J., & Bills, T. (2019). Enacting culturally responsive or socially response- able mathematics education. In Living Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education with/in Indigenous Communities (pp. 137-154). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004415768_007

Kaomea, J. (2020). Hawaiian math for a sustainable future. In Living Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education with/in Indigenous Communities (pp. 189-201). Brill. 

 
 
 

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