Puebla is Filled With Mathematics: Centering Joy and Curiosity Is Just Part of the Work

• In Event: We Will Rise Up for Youth and Mathematical Youth Participatory Action Research

Abstract

This work uses YPAR (Youth Participatory Action Research) elements (Cammarota & Romero, 2011) and photovoice methodology (Latz & Mulvihill, 2017) to uplift students' voices, including photos, narratives, and theorizing by two young people from Puebla, Mexico. This work is intertwined with the complexities of navigating adolescence during a pandemic while trying to explore mathematics across settings as individuals and as a collective (Ladson-Billings, 2021). Additionally, community, location, and epistemology or the systems of knowing (Ladson-Billings, G, 2000) are central to this work, as the young people identify so math around them in their communities, rural and city settings alike. So much here intertwines students’ thinking, feeling, knowing, and sensemaking of their mathematical experiences and identities (Aguirre et al., 2013; Jaspal & Breakwell, 2014; Nasir et al., 2021). Driving this photovoice work, specifically, is the research question: How do students name, experience, and perform mathematics, across settings (i.e., home, school, community), including Indigenous mathematics?

In taking a step back and seeking to understand how students embody mathematics across different contexts and centering joy and curiosity is just part of the work of knowing more about the systems of knowledge or epistemologies at play for these Poblano youth (Calderón et al., 2012). This work is a hybrid of photos, narratives, and critical discourse analysis from focus groups and exhibitions or presentations with a similar structure as a school assembly. The students’ experiences of why they even decided to join the group speak volumes about how the youth see themselves as mathematical knowers, learners, and doers. Some of the youth noted seeing themselves as "not good at math, and the project might help them be better." Others noted, "they were interested and hadn't other opportunities to talk about math in Puebla." The narratives youth tell themselves, the narratives they hear from others, and their incorporation of exploring counterstories was part of the youth's work (Harkness & Stallworth, 2013).
Along with the math teacher, I plan to continue elevating the way youth came to say that they are mathematical knowers and doers, and their ancestors, too hold, and embody mathematical knowledges. They had a strong desire to understand further and explore what indigenous mathematics means to them, by asking questions about "matemáticas de los antepasados" or "antepasado tecnología." This work offers intentionality of how YPAR and photovoice can be in conversation for a step towards social action and change (Barnabas, n.d.; Coughlin & Khinduka, n.d.), which uplifts the curiosity and could potentially lead to further YPAR. For instance, based on the scope, the youth that shared their wisdom and gained the momentum to encourage their school teachers and school administrators to engage more explicitly in Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris, 2012; Paris & Alim, 2014) in their unit planning as the youth shared that Puebla is filled with Mathematics and has a strong basis for exploring mathematical content and knowledge.

Author

• Gabrielle Elizabeth Bernal, California State University - Monterey Bay