Christine Ho Younghusband, now an assistant professor at the University of Northern British Columbia, began her inquiry into ethnomathematics 15 years ago at a time when Indigenous education wasn’t visible in the mathematics curriculum.
As a teacher of Math 8, Christine found herself with time and space in the curriculum, so she decided to embark on an inquiry project with a colleague to integrate Indigenous education into mathematics. In her project, Math Embedded: A Tribute to Susan Point, students studied the work of Coast Salish artist Susan Point and her work with spindle whorls. “The ‘spindle whorl’ refers to a carved, circular plate attached to the end of a wooden spindle that acts to lend weight during the wool spinning process. In Coast Salish tradition spindle whorls are carved with powerful, symmetrical designs which blur and merge as the spindle turns” (Google Books).
“That project was life-changing because everyone had an entry point, everyone could see their mathematics.”
In Christine’s project, students demonstrated their learning of linear and rotational symmetry by designing their own spindle whorl, without using a ruler, without using a calculator. Their designs reflected who they were, and even inspired some students to bring in their own artifacts from home and talk about their heritage. Christine says, “That project was career-changing and life-changing because everyone had an entry point, everyone could see their mathematics, everyone could connect in their own way that they felt was personally relevant to them.” The entry point? Indigenous education!
Further along in her career, Open School BC, a consulting agency that offers education solutions for school districts and ministries, invited Christine to work on a team with two others to create a video and learning activity to bring Indigenous perspectives into the mathematics curriculum.
Christine and her colleagues began their work by choosing an artifact, the Bentwood box, and then thought about the math questions that could be generated. Initially they thought, “How many Bentwood boxes could fit in the gym?” But they challenged themselves: “Is this a real question? Or should we ask a different question? Let’s understand what the box is for. The dimensions matter. If it’s for a blanket versus food, the dimensions change.” By thinking about the authentic purpose for the Bentwood box, Christine and her colleagues determined the rich mathematical question: “What are the dimensions of the tree that we would need to harvest in order to build this box?”
Christine considers this experience to be the best learning community she’s encountered in her career. They were scared shitless. Curious. Excited. But they were willing to try. She says, “We have to keep encouraging each other to take these risks. You can’t do it alone!”
Scared shitless. Curious. Excited. But willing to try.
Christine’s advice for teachers, schools, and districts looking to teach ethnomathematics:
- Think about mathematics and don’t be limited to what’s in the curriculum.
- Pick an artifact. Where does that artifact come from, what territory is it from? Why is it important? Where is the math? How would you use it in your classroom? What do you need to learn about it? Who do you need to contact to learn?
- Not everything is a Google search. That’s not how information is held. We can’t get to the nuances without listening and observing, witnessing and experiencing