The Role of Cultural Tools in Teaching and Learning Mathematics in a Refugee Context

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Studies of Diversity and Equity in Mathematics Education

Abstract

This mixed-method study focuses on a mathematics course taught through the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program in Dadaab, Kenya. The study addresses teacher candidates (TCs’) understanding of integrating inquiry in the teaching of mathematics in a refugee context. Through Likert scale surveys, interviews, reflections, and classroom work, TCs demonstrated a good grasp of the relevance of culture to teaching and learning in their reflections on school mathematics and real life mathematics. Common themes highlight cultural uses of math within society to address everyday needs in local contexts, and tools and objects used in mathematics especially within the Somali culture. Study findings suggest cultural resources as potent pedagogical tools for integrating school mathematics and culturally relevant teaching and learning.

Authors

• Isha DeCoito, University of Western Ontario

• Jane W Gichuru, University of prince Edward Island

• Lorraine Otoide, York University