Course Reflection Post

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 A big theme of this class for me was moving away from the traditional "teacher lectures and students do homework" format of a math classroom to a more holistic approach and gaining strategies to do so. One of the pieces we looked at that was highly influential for me was the Jo Boaler video. It seemed like such an obvious concept - that our focus in math needs to switch from computational to real-world/meaningful problems - but she just presented all the information and research in such a clear way that it is still with me. Another very influential reading/presentation we watched was Dr. Robin Kimmerer's work. As I am still navigating and learning more about Indigenous Perspectives, I find myself referring back to her braid metaphor for ways of knowing quite frequently. Sustainability in math is still a little overwhelming for me, however, I have been able to gain some insights during other courses and also by tying it back to Indigenous Perspectives. Specifically, I found the idea of teaching math as a part of a whole, as opposed to an isolated subject helpful in finding a way to introduce sustainability, at least a little bit at a time, as I myself explore the topic. Other helpful methods of teaching we talked about were embodying math, the effects of marking, which we talked about in other classes as well so it was nice to have complementary material and gain a deeper understanding of these topics as well.

In terms of suggestions for next month, I'm not sure if this is really a topic or not, but I would be interested in finding out more about assigning less traditional assignments/projects to students. For example, we talked about Mike Naylor's math novel, and my SA had me read The Curious Case of the Dog at Nighttime in which the main character often described his thinking or events using mathematical puzzles or concepts. It would be interesting to hear from teachers who have assigned novels as readings, creative writing math pieces, or other things not typically assigned in math classrooms and how they explicitly tied that to the course or emphasized the mathematical importance along the way.

Inquiry Project Reflection Post

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 Here are the slides for Amrit's and my inquiry project:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-reZ5v1zqvOBf-ijZqi2-QvIw1j9RFKeBb3mE_-J62w/edit#slide=id.p

Through the course of researching this topic, I was met with quite a few surprises. First of all, I hadn't realized how many teachers were using the FNESC textbook. Because it has been a short amount of time since the book was published, I anticipated not being able to collect a lot of information on the effectiveness of its usage. However,  I hadn't thought about looking into Indigenous knowledge implementation from around the world until we started doing our research. 

We discovered that a lot of similarities between the struggles Indigenous students faced here and in places like Australia and Africa. Through reading on the strategies used in other parts of the world, we were able to find methods that would help us in our own classrooms. In addition to this, we did find some instances of successful integration of Indigenous Perspectives in Canadian classrooms as well as what we should avoid (or what is less effective). I am glad that we were able to find a lot of resources and starting places for integrating Indigenous Perspectives into our classrooms and I hope to delve deeper into them through the continuation of our Inquiry project.

Exit Slip # 10: Inquiry Project Update

 Amrit and I have found our sources now and have several different possible real-world connections that we will incorporate depending on what we receive from those conversations. We have started our slides and are starting to get more specific in our plan of starting with an introduction, detailing the research, and going into the activity. Narrowing down the scope of our project has been a little difficult because there are so many aspects to Indigenous Perspectives, but we are trying to stick with knowledge that directly impacts our study, while leaving helpful links for our classmates who might be interested in exploring those other aspects.

Annotated Bibliography for on Indigenous Perspectives in the classrooms

Annotated Bibliography for on Indigenous Perspectives in the classrooms

Karishma and Amrit are working on the inquiry project on Indigenous perspectives in the classrooms. We plan to start with the introduction of Indigenous culture and after that we will discuss the academic impact and SEL impact on the students. The articles and videos that we are using in our research are as below:

· Barta, J, & Shockey, T. (2016). Finding the ‘Space Between’ in Developing Mathematical Curriculum and Pedagogy across Cultures: The Mathematical Ways of the Northern Ute. The Journal of Mathematics and Culture. 10(3). Retrieved from: https://journalofmathematicsandculture.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/barta-shockey-final-august.pdf

These articles include information on how Indigenous peoples of Ute used or continue to use math in their lives. It provides explicit connections to curriculum-required content, as well as different perspectives, such as spatial awareness.

· Cherinda, M. (2015). Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Mathematics School Curriculum: What is the Story so far? Ethomathematics Studies. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2598.1282

In this article, a research was done on shifting traditional teaching practices into hands-on activities. It also tells about how this shift helps students socially and emotionally by developing their cognitive skills. It also explains how to create connections between cultural knowledge and mathematical knowledge.

· Chrona, J. (2015). Learning recognizes the role of Indigenous Knowledge. Retrieved from: https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com/learning-recognizes-the-role-of-indigenous-knowledge/

This blog page describes what Indigenous Knowledge is and how it connects to various subject areas, including math.

· First Nations Education Steering Committee. (2020). Math first peoples: Teacher resource guide, elementary & secondary. Retrieved from: http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PUBLICATION-Math-FP-TRG-2020-09-04.pdf

This textbook includes good descriptions of what constitutes Indigenous practices/perspectives but since it’s a fairly new textbook, not much is mentioned about previous successes in implementing these ideas. There are also various activities listed that are designed to help teachers tie Indigenous Perspectives and curriculum goals together.

· Galindo, Ed. (2009). Compassion: A Hearts-on Paradigm for Transiting Native American Students into a STEM University Environment. The Journal of Mathematics and Culture. 4(1). Retrieved from: https://journalofmathematicsandculture.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/compassion-a-hearts-on-paradigm-v4-1.pdf

This article details the efforts of a collaboration project between a high school and university in Idaho called “Indian Summer,” which aimed to increase Indigenous student enrollment into STEM fields by working with students on locally relevant issues. Although specific to Indigenous students, this article illustrates the Indigenous Perspective of “hands-on-hearts-on” learning and how this benefits students on a social and emotional level.

- Goeson, D., Nicolidakis, M., Gamble, K., & Houghland, M. (2017).Weaving Math Aboriginal Mathematics Inquiry Team. Burnaby Schools Website. (https://burnabyschools.ca/indigenouseducation/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/11/weaving-math.compressed.pdf

This PDF details the lesson plan and successful outcomes of a weaving activity done in a Grade 10 math classroom. We plan on conducting a similar activity with our class using paper instead of yarn so that our classmates get a sense of what incorporating Indigenous Perspectives in a classroom actually looks and feels like.

· Meaney, T., McMurchy-Pilkington, C., & Trinick, T. Indigenous students and the learning of mathematics. (pp. 67-87). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. doi: 10.1007/978-94-6091-970-1_5

This article discusses the reasons why Indigenous students struggle in Western-centred math classrooms in Australasia. The article also includes suggestions of good ways to incorporate Indigenous perspectives in a meaningful way (e.g. group work is an Indigenous perspective so long as it is framed that way because it includes oral passing of knowledge and collaboration).

· Nolan, K., & Weston, J. H. (2015). Aboriginal perspectives and/in mathematics: A case study of three grade 6 teachers. In Education, 21(1), 12. Retrieved from: https://ineducation.ca/ineducation/article/view/195/788

In this study, three teachers are given a kit that includes various math activities involving Indigenous perspectives. The article discusses the results each teacher found in their classroom, which ranged from no perceived gain in mathematical knowledge to a seamless incorporation of both Indigenous knowledge and curriculum-required mathematics.

· Peterson, S. S., Jang, S. Y., San Miguel, J., Styres, S., & Madsen, A. (2018). Infusing indigenous knowledge and epistemologies: Learning from teachers in northern aboriginal head start classrooms. McGill Journal of Education, 53(1), 26-46. Doi: 10.7202/1056281ar

This article talks about SEL and Academic impact of indigenous knowledge. It also reflects the impact of residential schools on the students' social emotional learning and how they lose their language and get disconnected from their land and ancestors. This article is full of real examples presented by the students, how they share their cultural knowledge and land acknowledgement and feel connected with other students in the classroom.

· Toulouse, P. R. (2016). What matters in indigenous education: Implementing a vision committed to holism, diversity and engagement. Measuring What Matters. Retrieved from: https://peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/MWM-What-Matters-in-Indigenous-Education.pdf

This article talks about building interpersonal relationships among students in the classroom by allowing students to present their cultural knowledge thoughts in an authentic way. It also explains the impacts of connecting students with the real world by acknowledging the student’s prior knowledge and skills.

· Troutman, J. & McCoy, L. (2008). Re-membering Mathematics: The Effect of Culturally Relevant Lessons in Math History on Student’s Attitudes. The Journal of Mathematics and Culture. 3(1). Retrieved from: https://journalofmathematicsandculture.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/re-membering-mathematics.pdf

This article describes the importance of teaching culturally and historically relevant mathematics to students by showing the attitudes of different students towards math that lacks this connection. That is, this article shows that including diverse backgrounds, including Indigenous perspectives, increases all student motivation and SEL.

· Stavros Stavrou. (Nov 22, 2015). Aboriginal math education: Collaborative learning [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHyvlrbCiAY

This video provides some examples of how to incorporate land into the math classrooms. It also presents how aboriginal language acknowledgement helps aboriginal students to build confidence and feel connected with other students.

Exit Slip #9: Inquiry Project Progress Report

 We are currently still going through our sources to determine which are the most relevant. We briefly contemplated looking exclusively at Indigenous Perspectives in a Canadian context, but found that there aren't enough articles detailing the effects of Indigenous Perspectives in a math classroom on students; resources are more focused on introducing activities to use in the classroom or explaining what Indigenous Perspectives are and the key aspects that should be incorporated in a math classroom without necessarily listing results. However, we have quite a few sources in North America in general, as well as a few from Australia and Africa, which share similar issues of having a Eurocentric curriculum.

In preparation for our real-world connection, I have reached out to four different people of Indigenous background from Prince Rupert, one of whom has been tutoring students in the community for over ten years, and another who has already been working on introducing math to her two-year-old. In addition to this, I have notes from a talk I had with the Indigenous Education teacher from my practicum school. Amrit will also be looking to hear from students that are not of Indigenous background to see how they would feel about learning Indigenous Perspectives in the classroom. I may reach out to students in my hometown and my practicum school, depending on how many responses we receive from the others. I am hesitant to contact elders at this stage because I don't wish to rush the process. I would like to do that in the future if possible; however, I don't know the best approach to organizing an interview and what we should be prepared with beforehand.

Our proposed outline for our presentation is 

1) Introduction to what Indigenous Perspectives are and how they relate to a math classroom 

2) Discussing our findings on the effects introducing these perspectives has on students 

3) Interactive activity (we are thinking a weaving exercise that our classmates can use recycled (or other) paper for)

Inquiry Potential Links for Annotated Bibliography

Amrit and I are still reading through our selected links to make notes and change articles/videos that may be less relevant but here is a link to our google doc for the time being:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LVYqUvWxDa52QCz-uqi5z2uUkLEbXVE5oWjvv37efNI/edit?usp=sharing

Exit Slip # 8: The Inquiry/Research Process

 There were some interesting perspectives brought up in today's discussions. There seemed to be a range of opinions when it came to facilitating creativity in terms of what should be allowed and what should be discouraged. I personally believe it's about definition. For example, if I say "all angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees," I am taking for granted some assumptions about what plane I am in. Of course, it would be tedious to mention all the stipulations to a concept when speaking about it but that's why laying ground rules and mentioning that there are other options out there is a good idea. If we show our students that most of what they know (reading, writing, math etc.) are through chosen conventions, this can broaden their perspectives and show them that there are more possibilities in the world besides the ones they are used to. That's why assigning inquiry or research projects would be a good idea - that way students could explore these less conventional ideas or learn more about aspects of math that they are interested in. Letting them play around with mathematical ideas will not only allow them deeper understanding, but hopefully more investment in the content because they are developing a stronger background and asking questions they want answers to.