Different Cultures in the Classroom
Among the challenges brought upon by differences in language, convention and cognitive characteristics, there is the challenge of dealing with different cultures in the Western classroom. There is much emphasis placed on the Western perspectives of mathematics and many text and teaching resources are based around this way of thinking (Daniel Clark Orey & Milton Rosa, 2012). This means that mathematics context, problems and tasks are all presented around the Western culture. Because mathematics has become mainly Eurocentric, this divide creates problems for mathematics in non-Western cultures because they are not able to relate to the context in which they are being taught (Orey & Rosa, 2012). Daniel Clark Orey and Milton Rosa (2012) express how math is a combination of human development, culture and thought. If the classroom is centered on the Western culture, students from non-Western cultures are faced with a large challenge. Every culture is different and therefore needs to be represented in the mathematics classroom. Ethnomathematics is a term used to demonstrate the diversity of mathematics and the many cultural traditions that are included (Daniel Clark Orey & Milton Rosa, 2012). Every culture has their own way of thinking, explaining, justifying, hypothesizing, measuring, modeling, etc. Student’s cultures cannot be ignored or disrespected throughout the classroom but instead need to be included and celebrated. So how can teachers deal with this challenge and find a way to include all cultures throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics?