Tag Archives: Culturally appropriate design

M1P3: Indigenous Culture-Based School Mathematics in Action

Indigenous Culture-Based School Mathematics in Action: Part I: Professional Development for Creating Teaching Materials

  • This first of a pair of articles describes a professional development project that prepared
    four non-Indigenous mathematics teachers (Grades 5-12) to implement Canada’s Truth and
    Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC, 2016) notion of reconciliation: cross-cultural respect through
    mutual understanding

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/tme/vol18/iss1/9/

Meyer, Sharon and Aikenhead, Glen (2021) “Indigenous Culture-Based School Mathematics in Action: Part I: Professional Development for Creating Teaching Materials,” The Mathematics Enthusiast: Vol. 18 : No. 1 , Article 9.

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Indigenous Culture-Based School Mathematics in Action Part II: The Study’s Results: What Support Do Teachers Need?

  • The research question: What precise supports must be in place for Grades 5 to 12 teachers to enhance their mathematics classes in a sustainable way with Indigenous mathematizing and Indigenous worldview
    perspectives?

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/tme/vol18/iss1/10

Meyer, Sharon and Aikenhead, Glen (2021) “Indigenous Culture-Based School Mathematics in Action Part II: The Study’s Results: What Support Do Teachers Need?,” The Mathematics Enthusiast: Vol. 18 : No. 1 , Article 10.

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*June 20 – Edit*

I came across this resource that pulls together the above two pieces of research. It is from the McDowell Foundation, which provides grants for teacher-led research projects in Saskatchewan.

Culture-Based School Mathematics for Reconciliation and Professional Development

Decolonizing Teaching Indigenizing Learning (M1P5)

UBC has made a series of curriculum bundles for Indigenizing education. The subjects range from storytelling to STEAM.

These are not lesson-plans, but frameworks that could be adapted for your local community. Besides being an excellent toolkit, this resource can also serve as a model for curriculum design. Each resource includes clear connections to the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning and the BC Curriculum. They also provide important information for educators on how to use the frameworks in a respectful and humble manner.

Mod#1-Post#1: Reversing the Trend-A glimpse at Pioneering Indigenous Technologies

The readings in this module demonstrate that the mainstream technologies are not culturally neutral. It has been argued that the web’s values reflect its builders — primarily Western and do not represent Indigenous perspective. As such, I desired to research innovations that reverse the trend.  Below are three notable developments representing local contexts and addressing the specific needs of  Indigenous cultures. One keynote the development process has Indigenous communities’ involvement at every stage of the technologies production (i.e., check the references for more information).

[1] #thisismymob

It is a smartphone application developed by researchers in the Engineering and Information Technology faculty at the University of Technology Sydney. According to the project’s director, Christopher Lawrence (2018, August 1), the project was inspired by the idea of “postcolonial computing.” It employs participatory design to grant the technology design is culturally relevant and accessible to the Australian local context.

(NITV News, June 19, 2018)

[2] SIKU

It is an Indigenous Knowledge Social Network (SIKU) smartphone application released in December 2019. The app was created by the Nunavut civil society group Arctic Eider Society with funding from the 2017 Google.org Impact Challenge. It is named after the Inuktitut word for sea ice (UNESCO Courier, 2019). The app aims to keep Inuit communities updated about sea ice conditions while hunting or traveling and recording and exchanging comprehensive traditional information and language amongst community members in a way that engages the younger generation (Arctic Eider Society, 2019, December 4). One important note about this app is the specialized privacy setting that ensures that Indigenous knowledge of its Indigenous users remains protected (Arctic Eider Society, 2019, December 4).

(Arctic Eider Society, 2019, December 4)

[3] When Rivers Were Trails

It is a 2D adventure educational game focusing on the impact of assimilationist allotment acts of the 1890s on the Anishinaabe community. The game is developed by Elizbeth LaPensée in collaboration with Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab at Michigan State University and officially released in 2019. According to LaPensée (2021), “games can [be used to] express Indigenous cultures through self-determined representations” (p.293). The production combines indigenous ways of knowing, themes, and story-telling formats, such as non-linear paths that mimic conventional story-telling systems, utilizes indigenous characters, and places games in historical contexts.

(SGSChallenge, 2019, November 6)

References