STORYTELLING AS A METHOD FOR ACQUIRING MATHEMATICAL UNDERSTANDING AND SKILL

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Nomsa Mdlalose
Keyword(s):  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
Mathematical Understanding ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Innate Ability

According to historical accounts of old Africa, mathematics got divorced from the heritage arena. It was subsequently perceived incongruent with locally produced knowledge. Zaslavsky (1999) affirms that the manner in which Africa is portrayed in reference to the history of mathematics and the history of numbers, one would conclude that Africans barely knew how to count. Notwithstanding this, storytelling as an aspect of African indigenous knowledge systems and of a genre of oral tradition constitutes various socio-cosmic codes. Narrative being a social phenomenon and rhythm being symbolic to innate ability to count assume storytelling and numbering affinity. The article aims to explore employment of storytelling for the purpose of assisting basic education learners to acquire mathematical understanding and skills.

scholarly journals Towards African humanicity: Re-mythogolising Ubuntu through reflections on the ethnomathematics of African cultures

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iman Chahine
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Curriculum ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
African Students ◽  
African Experience ◽  
The People ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Collective Beliefs ◽  
Kinship Relations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Students Success

Throughout the history of mathematics, Eurocentric approaches in developing and disseminating mathematical knowledge have been largely dominant. Building on the riches of African cultures, this paper introduces ethnomathematics as a discipline bridging mathematical ideas with cultural contexts thereby honoring diversity and fostering respect for cultural heritages. Ethnomathematics promotes a conceptualisation of culture to include the authentic humanity of the people sharing collective beliefs, traditions, and practices. I propose the term African humanicity to refer to the authentic African experience that reflects genuine African cultural identity. I further argue that immersion in the ethnomathematical practices of African cultures provides insight into critical factors shaping African students’ success in mathematics. Drawing upon the vast literature on the ingenuity of African cultures, I present ethnomathematical ideas that permeate numerous African indigenous knowledge systems that could be introduced in the mathematics curriculum. These systems include folk games and puzzles, kinship relations, and divination systems.

scholarly journals Implications of a technoscientific culture on personhood in Africa and in the West

2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornel Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Community Life ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of Development ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Community ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Rich History

This paper endeavours to converge on present-day experiences of self. This is done against the backdrop of the interdependence between person (organism) and environment (physical and cultural). The rich history of development of personhood in the West is discussed with reference to the metaphor of mask for personhood. Cultural epochs are described as phonocentric (in front of the mask), logocentric (behind the mask) and virtuocentric (between non-present masks). The history of modernism led to the experience of the end of personhood in the West. The restoration of personhood (subjectivity) seems possible through the restoration of some form of communitarianism. This brings Africa in focus. In an enigmatic way Africa knows science and utilises technology, but simultaneously relativises it in favour of traditional customs which the Western mind may judge to be mythological and primitive. African personhood is discussed with reference to African science in the format of Indigenous knowledge systems, to African community life as ubuntu, and to the place of seriti in African metaphysics.

scholarly journals New Research Perspectives on Native American Students in Higher Education

JCSCORE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-80
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Waterman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Native American ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Methodology ◽  
Native American Students ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Research

This chapter begins with a brief history of higher education’s role in assimilation, oppression, and removal of Indigenous people. A short literature review outlines the progression of higher education literature from deficit focused ideologies to current research that decolonizes and centers of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. “Sharing circles” as an Indigenous methodology is described. Centering Indigenous experiences in higher education and Indigenous knowledge systems focus on ways that Western forms of education can be used as tools to strengthen Native nations.

scholarly journals APROXIMAÇÃO DA HISTÓRIA DA MATEMÁTICA PRESENTE NOS LIVROS DIDÁTICOS COM A ESCRITA HISTORIOGRÁFICA TRADICIONAL E ATUALIZADA

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 406-417
Author(s):  
Francisco Wagner Soares Oliveira ◽  
Eugeniano Brito Martins ◽  
Siziê Maria de Albuquerque ◽  
Ana Carolina Costa Pereira
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
Scientific Investigation ◽  
Teaching Mathematics ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Mathematics Textbook ◽  
History Of

Resumo: A história da matemática como campo de investigação cientifica tem possibilitado, por meio da observação e análise em tratados históricos que carregam em seu conteúdo e contexto uma gama de informações, a produção de narrativas historiográficas das quais são elencados desdobramentos para o ensino. Tal fato tem ocorrido a partir do pressuposto de que a incorporação de elementos da história em sala pode fornecer subsídios ao processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Visto isso, mediante a proximidade com a educação básica, em especial com o ensino médio, desenvolveu-se esse estudo na tentativa de identificar a aproximação das escritas baseadas na história da matemática presentes em livros didáticos do ensino médio com as vertentes historiográficas tradicional e atualizada. Nessa perspectiva, a pesquisa ora realizada foi de cunho qualitativa documental com uma contribuição bibliográfica. Verificou-se nesse estudo que os textos, em que informações da história são elucidadas, possuem características que condizem com a vertente historiográfica tradicional. Em nenhuma das alusões feitas à história foi possível observar um domínio de características que a indicasse como próxima a uma escrita da história nos moldes da vertente atualizada.Palavras-chave: Ensino de matemática. Livro didático. Escrita da história da matemática. Abstract: Tradução do resumo para o Inglês. The history of mathematics as a field of scientific investigation has made possible through observation and analysis in treaties and / or works that carry in their content and context a range of information to the production of some historiographical narratives, of which they are sometimes listed and / or some of its implications for teaching. This fact has occurred from the assumption that the incorporation of elements of the story into room may possibly provide subsidies to the teaching and learning process. Given this, and through proximity to basic education, especially with secondary education, this study was developed in an attempt to identify the approximation of the writings based on the history of mathematics present in high school textbooks with the traditional and updated historiographic aspect. From this perspective, the research carried out was qualitative documentary with a bibliographical contribution. It was mentioned in this study that the texts, in which information of the story are elucidated, have characteristics that correspond to the traditional historiographic aspect, in none of the allusions made history was it possible to observe a domain of characteristics that indicated it as close to a writing of history in the molds of the updated slope.Keywords: Teaching mathematics. Textbook. Math history writing.

scholarly journals Sites and objects, indigenous library and the history of Laimbwe, Cameroon

Afrika Focus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Kam Kah
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Indigenous Methods ◽  
Rich History

This study focuses on the construction of the history of the Laimbwe people of Cameroon through indigenous methods of enquiry and/or epistemologies. These include analyses of surviving historical objects, sites and artefacts from the pre-colonial period to the reunfication of British Southern Cameroons with the Cameroun Republic in 1961. Some traditional items of the Laimbwe people of Cameroon and existing artefacts as well as sites reveal a very rich history with information that Western and conventional research have not vividly captured. In this paper, we reflect on the salience of these sources in understanding the rich socio-cultural and political history of the Laimbwe. There is a need to document this as an indigenous African library in this age of globali- sation so that indigenous knowledge systems are disseminated to a wider academic audience. A construction of Laimbwe history through these indigenous forms of the library present them as new perspectives of local epistemologies beyond the capture of the western library introduced into Africa during the colonial period and even before. It continues to shape the way African national and local histories are written based on Western interpretations and or epistemologies. Key words: sites, objects, history, Laimbwe, Cameroon 

A Decolonial Curriculum Is Everything

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-81
Author(s):  
Zingisa Nkosinkulu
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
Knowledge System ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

This chapter seeks to map how indigenous people and their indigenous knowledge systems are the most researched and written about in the world, yet they are the least understood. The curriculum of the empire and its scientific explanation justified how indigenous knowledge systems should be approached and viewed as well as who has the authority to justify; hence, indigenous knowledge systems were justified as inferior and not worthy of the standard of European knowledge system. In this chapter, Frantz Fanon's thought will be deployed to illustrate how this division of knowledge justifies the perpetuating dehumanisation of indigenous people under the mask of modernisation and globalisation. By deploying decoloniality, Afrocentricity, and Fanonian thought, this chapter seeks to challenge this curriculum that is based on the history of the conquest of Africa that positioned Africa only as a cradle of slaves and the black bodied as created by God only for the benefit of the Europeans.

scholarly journals The mnemonic oral tradition with special reference to the management and expression of conflict in Zulu-speaking communities

Literator ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.S. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Group Behaviour ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
The Impact

The identification of features of oral studies and especially the issue of conflict and their terms of reference, have recently become a topic of increasing interest among researchers in Southern Africa. The National Research Foundation is nowadays encouraging academics to focus on the area of indigenous knowledge systems. Included in that focus area is the recommendation that research should be done on the impact that indigenous knowledge has on lifestyles and the ways in which societies operate. The study of ways in which specific societies articulate issues of conflict is inextricably linked with the way in which language is used in particular communities. This study deals with African and specifically Zulu communities, and how the mnemonic oral tradition plays an essential role in the oral strategies used as a means of dealing with issues of conflict. These strategies are based on an age-old mnemonic oral tradition which is socialised and used as an acceptable norm of group behaviour. Furthermore it is an acceptable way of managing and expressing conflict in social situations where direct verbal confrontation is frowned upon and deemed unacceptable.

scholarly journals História dos Descobrimentos e História da Matemática, uma interseção na sala de aula

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 467-483
Author(s):  
Helder Pinto ◽  
Teresa Costa Clain
Keyword(s):  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
History Of Mathematics ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Commercial Development ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Explicit Reference ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University

ResumoUm dos temas mais atuais no ensino é a interdisciplinaridade entre diferentes disciplinas do currículo escolar. O programa de Matemática faz referência explícita a esta questão: “o domínio de certos instrumentos matemáticos revela-se essencial ao estudo de fenómenos que constituem objeto de atenção em outras disciplinas do currículo do Ensino Básico”. Neste trabalho propomos apresentar vários tópicos de História da Matemática que podem ser introduzidos no contexto educativo a propósito dos Descobrimentos, tema essencial e central na História de Portugal. Em particular, abordaremos a aritmética comercial portuguesa daquela época, bem como o matemático Pedro Nunes e um dos seus instrumentos para a navegação astronómica. Neste texto mostraremos várias atividades práticas que têm sido implementadas pelos autores em diversas escolas básicas e secundárias, bem como o projeto «Biblioteca Escolar» da Universidade de Aveiro onde diversos tópicos de História da Ciência têm sido levados a várias escolas, geralmente da região de Aveiro. Note-se que esta abordagem multidisciplinar tem o potencial de ser benéfica para ambas as disciplinas: por um lado humaniza a disciplina de Matemática mostrando um lado mais prático e de resolução de problemas reais ao longo dos tempos e, por outro lado, apresenta uma outra faceta dos Descobrimentos, onde se mostra que também foi necessário um desenvolvimento científico e comercial substancial que acompanhasse a expansão territorial daquela época.Palavras-chave: História da Matemática, Matemática, Descobrimentos.Abstract One of the most current topics in teaching is the interdisciplinarity between different disciplines of the curricula. The program of Mathematics makes explicit reference to this question: "The knowledge of some mathematical instruments is essential to the study of certain phenomena that are object of attention in other disciplines of the curriculum of Basic Education." In this work we propose to present several topics of History of Mathematics that can be introduced in the educational context about the Portuguese Discoveries, a central theme in Portuguese History. We will show, in particular, the Portuguese commercial arithmetic of that time, as well as the mathematician Pedro Nunes and one of his instruments to help the astronomical navigation. In this presentation we will show several practical activities that have been implemented by the authors in several primary and secondary schools, as well as the project «Biblioteca Escolar» of the University of Aveiro where several topics of History of Science have been taken to several schools, usually in the Aveiro region. It should be noted that this multidisciplinary approach has the potential to be beneficial to both disciplines: on one hand it humanizes the Mathematics discipline by showing a more practical and real problem-solving side through the ages and, on the other hand, presents another view of the Discoveries, which shows that a substantial scientific and commercial development was necessary to attend the territorial expansion of that time. Keywords: History of Mathematics, Mathematics, Portuguese Discoveries.

scholarly journals Sites and objects, indigenous library and the history of Laimbwe, Cameroon

Afrika Focus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-73
Author(s):  
Henry Kam Kah
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Political History ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Indigenous Methods ◽  
Rich History

This study focuses on the construction of the history of the Laimbwe people of Cameroon through indigenous methods of enquiry and/or epistemologies. These include analyses of surviving historical objects, sites and artefacts from the pre-colonial period to the reunification of British Southern Cameroons with the Cameroun Republic in 1961. Some traditional items of the Laimbwe people of Cameroon and existing artefacts as well as sites reveal a very rich history with information that Western and conventional research have not vividly captured. In this paper, we reflect on the salience of these sources in understanding the rich socio-cultural and political history of the Laimbwe. There is a need to document this as an indigenous African library in this age of globalisation so that indigenous knowledge systems are disseminated to a wider academic audience. A construction of Laimbwe history through these indigenous forms of the library present them as new perspectives of local epistemologies beyond the capture of the western library introduced into Africa during the colonial period and even before. It continues to shape the way African national and local histories are written based on Western interpretations and or epistemologies.

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