Principles of Culturally Relevant Education in an Ethnomathematical Perspective

Abstract

The implementation of culturally relevant education assists in the development of student intellectual, social, and political learning by using their cultural referents to develop mathematical knowledge. It uses prior experiences of students to make learning more relevant and effective in order to strengthen their connectedness with schooling. Culturally relevant schools contextualize teaching and instructional practices while maintaining academic rigor. In these schools, educators, teachers, school leaders, and staff members are able to recognize and build upon the strengths of the students by applying instructional strategies that are culturally relevant. Culturally relevant leadership is grounded in the conviction that students are able to excel in their academic endeavor. In this context, it is necessary to enable the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy into the curricula, designed to fit together school culture with students’ background in order to help them to conceptualize knowledge. Ethnomathematics and culturally relevant pedagogy-based approaches to mathematics curriculum are intended to make mathematical content more meaningful and relevant to students. Hence, the main objective of this article is to discuss the importance of principles of culturally relevant education in accordance to an ethnomathematics perspective.