Dreaming in Tandem: A Duoethnographic Inquiry into Spiritual Praxis and Justice-Centered Mathematics Futures

• In Event: Dreaming Beyond Numbers: Storytelling as a Methodology and Praxis in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Purpose
This paper examines how spirituality and faith inform equity work in mathematics education through a duoethnographic inquiry between two co-researchers within the DREAMERS project. We explore how our respective traditions—Christian religiosity and Yoruba divination—shape our conceptualizations of mathematics, justice, and educational transformation. For example, 256 Odu of Ifá in Yoruba practice reflects an ancient binary system. Each Odu consists of two sets of four lines, with each line either open or closed—akin to binary digits. This yields 2⁸, or 256 combinations, forming the Ifá corpus. The 16 base Odu (2⁴) combine in pairs to create the full matrix. Ifá thus operates as a sophisticated algorithmic system, demonstrating how mathematical thinking is embedded in spiritual knowledge traditions. The study seeks to expand the discourse around liberatory mathematics education by positioning spirituality as a valid and generative epistemology in systems change work.
Theoretical Frameworks
Our inquiry is grounded in the DREAMERS project’s triadic framework of Reflecting, Identifying, and Dreaming, as well as in traditions of critical race theory (Ladson-Billings, 2021), Black education spaces (Warren & Coles, 2020), and radical futurity via freedom dreaming (Kelley, 2022). Duoethnography as a methodological orientation (Sawyer & Norris, 2013) supports our co-construction of meaning, while narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), testimonio (Delgado Bernal et al., 2012), and FaithCrit (Malone & LaChaud, 2022) allow us to honor the sacred, personal, and political nature of our stories. We also draw on Indigenous and African diasporic epistemologies that recognize mathematics as both analytic and spiritual.
Modes of Inquiry
Duoethnography is employed as both methodology and praxis, enabling a relational inquiry through which we serve as both researchers and participants. We engaged in a multi-stage process that included story exchange, artifact sharing (including spiritual and pedagogical tools), collaborative writing, and reflexive dialogue. Our data consisted of transcribed conversations, reflective journal entries, and culturally rooted objects or practices—such as prayer, odu (Ifá binary systems), and scripture—as analytic anchors.
Results
Our narratives surface tensions between institutional expectations and spiritual callings, between logic and intuition, and between quantification and qualitative knowing. We find that spirituality offers a powerful framework for ethical reflection, pedagogical creativity, and resistance to dehumanizing systems. Importantly, we demonstrate that mathematics—when approached through a healing and spiritual lens—can become a tool of liberation, not merely of measurement. Our collaboration enacted the kind of transformative community DREAMERS envisions, providing insight into how spiritual praxis informs not just what we research, but how we relate and build knowledge together.
Scholarly Significance
This study contributes to the growing field of healing-centered and justice-oriented mathematics education by modeling an approach that centers relational, spiritual, and culturally grounded epistemologies. It challenges dominant paradigms that silence or exclude spiritual knowing in academic research, particularly within mathematics. By showcasing how duoethnography can honor both analytic rigor and ancestral knowledge, we offer a replicable model for future collaborative research, especially among scholars working at the intersection of education, spirituality, and systems change.

Authors

• David J. Wallace, Awakening Minds LLC

• Candace Kyles, Loyola University Chicago