Echoed Rememberings: Mathematics and Science Education as Re/conciliation

• In Event: 34.078 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 34.078-3 - The Transdisciplinary Nature of Mathematics Education

Abstract

Instead of trying to kill the Indian to save the child, North America might have gone into partnership with the various nations, and, together, they could have come up with an education plan that would have complemented Native cultures and, perhaps, even enriched white culture at the same time. Just a thought. (King, 2012, p.119)

As we consider our work alongside Aboriginal people, peoples, and communities, we reflect upon the words of King (2012) and our own work in mathematics and science education to envision an “education plan” that honours Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing as a means of inspiring learning for all learners in Canada.

Although we are non-Indigenous researchers, we have both built long-term relationships within Indigenous communities. As such we approach teaching, learning, and research in ways deeply informed by understandings developed in the places where we live and work. Our work is rooted in decolonizing frameworks and employs Indigenous methodologies which “by their nature, evoke collective responsibility” (Kovach, 2005, p.178) and allow us to “examine the possibilities inherent in indigenous ontologies” (Stewart-Harawira, 2005, p. 34) for teaching and learning.

Our data draws upon recent projects in which we have been engaged–Show Me Your Math in Nova Scotia and the Indigenous Teaching and Learning Gardens at the University of Alberta–to provide examples of how we can create opportunities in K-12 and teacher education that centres Indigenous knowledges as places from which learning emerges. The Show Me Your Math program is situated in a K-12 context in Mi’kmaw community schools and public schools that serve Mi’kmaw communities. The program invites children to engage in culturally-based inquiry projects that centre Indigenous knowledge and allow for mathematics learning to emerge in rich ways. The Indigenous Teaching and Learning Gardens is situated in a teacher education context. It supports K-12 pre- and in-service teachers’ learning in response to provincial/territorial mandates to integrate Aboriginal perspectives across K-12 curricula (e.g. Alberta Learning, 2002), and responds to calls from the Association of Deans of Canadian Education (ADCE) to develop “comprehensive teacher candidate and faculty programs that create meaningful opportunities for learning about and practicing Aboriginal pedagogies and ways of knowing” (Archibald, Lundy, Reynolds, & Williams, 2010, p. 6). Author (2016) has argued that much of current educational research is echoed rememberings of ideas Indigenous peoples have not forgotten. These ideas emerge in the stories of our research where one of the things we remember is that life and living are transdisciplinary and that the ways of knowing, being, and doing we bring to teaching and learning should reflect that complexity.

With the 2015 release of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, all Canadians are called upon to play a role in re/conciliation. We argue that mathematics and science education must be part of this process. As such, we examine decolonizing pedagogies that are evident in these examples and argue that Indigenous approaches to learning have much to offer all educators.

Authors

• Lisa Ann Lunney Borden, Saint Francis Xavier University

• Dawn Wiseman, McGill University