Mathematical Complicity in the Continuation of Colonization

• In Event: 67.018 - STEM: Power, Spectacle, and Resistance

Abstract

This paper problematizes the positioning of mathematics within STEM education and in so doing, further adds to the ongoing debates surrounding STEM education in general. Due to the dependence of science, technology, and engineering upon the rote and techno-rational/logical grounding of mathematics, as envisioned and enacted within STEM education, mathematics’ role in the continuation of the consequences of colonialism and other forms of segregation and oppression throughout North American society is increased. Central to this argument are two worldviews, the Traditional Western worldview and an Indigenous worldview (Russell & Chernoff, 2013). One, the Traditional Western worldview, embraces STEM education as necessary, appropriate, and the “right” way to educate. The other, an Indigenous worldview, recognizes the value of STEM as part of the complex and messy ways of being in this world, but also argues that it should not be made part of a static hierarchy of knowledge, with some knowledges being considered always better than others.

In examining how these two worldviews respond to STEM education, the focus will be on how the mathematics taught in schools: is not an ideologically neutral subject; is not equitably accessible for all people, and can easily close more doors than it opens. Examples from ethnomathematics, such as the turning of the heel of a sock (Harris, 1997) and the use of a base 20 (sub-base 5) number system in modern Inuit communities in northern Quebec (Poirier, 2007) will demonstrate the cultural and gender biases within the mathematics of STEM (and pre-STEM) education. These examples will demonstration how much mathematics (and mathematicians) has been systematically been ignored or appropriated by Western mathematics, as well as challenging the normative assumptions of singularity, compartmentalization, and abstraction within it. Additional examples will consider other ways of knowing mathematics including intuitive, cultural, and traditional knowledges (Arviso & Cohen, 1999; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012), identifying just a few of the frequently detrimental deficiencies and oversights within the Traditional Western grounding of mathematics (and STEM education). Finally, these issues will be connected to the ongoing struggles of many Indigenous (and non-Indigenous) students in relation to mathematics and mathematics learning, and ultimately, the complicity of mathematics (and STEM education) in the continuing oppression and segregation within North American society.

Authors

• Gale L. Russell, University of Saskatchewan

• Jesse Bazzul, University of Regina