The Interactions of Mathematics Education with Culture

Abstract

Many developments in education are fuelled by perceived problems in society, and mathematics education is no different. There is an increasing concern in many countries, including the UK, about the education of children whose family culture does not resonate with that of the school. In some countries pressure has mounted to reflect in the school curriculum the multi-cultural nature of their societies, and there has been widespread recognition of the need to re-evaluate the total school experience in the face of the educational failure of many children from ethnic minority communities In countries like Papua New Guinea, Mozambique and Iran, there is a concern to re-examine the 'colonial' or 'western' educational experience, and to try to create instead an education which is in tune with the 'home' culture of the society. The same concern emerges in other debates about the formal education of Aborigines, of Amerindians, of the Laps and of Eskimos. In all of these cases, a culture-conflict situation is recognised and curricula are being re-examined One particular version of this problem relates to the school Mathematics curriculum and its relationship with the home culture of the child.