Membership cards will also be available at ICME-7 in Quebec.
As of 12/31/91, ISGEm had 152 paid members.
Addison-Wesley hosted a reception following the business meeting.
Special Interest Group leaders made reports on their activities. The four SIG coordinators will initiate the process this September to organize sessions for the 1994 NCTM Conference. Individuals interested in participating may contact the leaders listed below:
Lawrence Shirley
Curriculum and Classroom Applications
Department of Mathematics
Towson State University
Towson, MD 21204-7079 USA
E-mail: SHIRLEY-L@TOWSONVX
Jerome Turner
Theoretical Perspectives
Education Department
St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, Nova Scotia
CANADA B2G 1C0
Luis Ortiz-Franco
Researching Culturally Diverse Environments
Department of Mathematics
Chapman University
Orange, CA 92666 USA
Henry Gore
Out-of-School Applications
Department of Mathematics
Morehouse College
Atlanta, GA 30314 USA
_______________________________
This may involve mathematical applications from various cultural and ethnic groups from around the world as in the many multicultural educational programs now being introduced. In some cases, this can help to build the self-esteem of students as they see that their home culture or the culture of their ancestors has used mathematics and contributed to the development of mathematics. It can encourage students from underrepresented groups of the population to continue and to excel in mathematics by demonstrating historical and present role models and generally by showing that people of their groups can indeed succeed in mathematics. Several ISGEm members have given workshops for teachers and students, demonstrating mathematics in African, Asian, and Native American cultures. Others have contributed to publications of textbooks and supplementary materials.
A broader definition of Ethnomathematics comes from a more inclusive meaning of "cultural groups". It can include groupings by gender, occupation, age, etc. In the classroom, this means reaching out to include more positive roles of women in mathematics and, notably, applying the NCTM Standards of Mathematical Connections to see mathematics in many different careers and the daily life of children and adults. ISGEm members have been involved with these activities by participating in curriculum development programs and conference presentations which emphasize mathematics in our life and our world.
When the SIG met briefly in Nashville in April 1992, the feeling was that too often it is hard to learn of on-going curricular programs and presentations of cultural examples for the classroom. Therefore, if you are involved in workshops, textbooks, or conference presentations which are related to classroom use of Ethnomathematics, please inform the SIG coordinator, who will try to compile and exchange this news, either through this Newsletter or through letters to the SIG's own mailing list. If you want to be on that mailing list please contact:
Lawrence Shirley
Department of Mathematics
Towson State University
Towson, MD 21204-7079 USA
E-mail: SHIRLEY-L@TOWSONVX
_______________________________
Jerome Turner
Education Department
St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, Nova Scotia, CANADA B2G 1C0
_______________________________
If you would like to participate in the Working Group on "Multicultural and Multilingual Classrooms" please contact the Organizer of the subgroup in which you have the most interest:
Curriculum, Resources & Materials for Multicultural\Multilingual Classrooms
Vera Preston
1209 Doonesbury Dr.
Austin, TX USA
Teacher Education for Math in Multicultural\Multilingual
Classrooms
David Davison
1809 Sagebrush Rd.
Billings, MT 59105 USA
Multicultural\Multilingual Classrooms & the Curriculum
for the XXIst Century
Jan Thomas
Victoria University of Tech
Dept of Teacher Education
P.O Box 54
Footscray 3011 AUSTRALIA
Vernacular Language and Culture in the Math Education of
Indigenous Groups
Elisa Bonilla
Depto de Inv Educ, CINVESTAV
Periférico Sur 2775, A-501
México, DF 10200 MEXICO
If you need an official invitation to facilitate your participation contact the Chief Organizer (Rick Scott, College of Education, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 USA, E-mail: scott@unmb) who will communicate your request to the Program Committee.
_______________________________
If you would like to participate in the Topic Group on
"Ethnomathematics and Mathematics
Education" contact:
Ubiratan D'Ambrosio
UNICAMP
Caixa Postal 6063
13081 Campinas, SP BRAZIL
E-mail: UBIRATAN@CCVAX.UNICAMP.ANSP.BR
_______________________________
_____________________________
_______________________________
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"Have You Seen" is a regular feature of the ISGEm Newsletter in which works related to
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Gerdes, Paulus. Lusona: Geometrical Recreations of Africa, Higher Pedagogical Institute, Maputo, Mozambique, 1991, 118 pages.
Lusona (pl. sona) are drawings that come from a long tradition among the Tchokwe and other peoples of Angola. They are presented in this bilingual (English and French) version of the original publication in Portuguese. An introductory Chapter 1 is followed by an explanation of the lusona tradition of sand drawings. Chapter 3 contains some "find the missing figures" challenges and Chapter 4 presents figures that the reader is invited to include in self-constructed patterns of increasing complexity. The final chapter encourages readers to submit their own lusona to the author.
Note: Arthur Powell and others have formed
the Instituto Superior Pedagógico Support Group
(ISPSG) to "mobilize material support" for that Institute which
Paulus Gerdes directs. They have
copies of Lusona for a donation of $10
or more you can order from:
ISP Support Group
c/o Arthur Powell
Academic Foundations Department
Rutgers University
Newark, NJ 07102 USA
____________________________
Washburn, Dorothy K. (1990). Style, Classification and Ethnicity: Design Categories on Bakuba Raffia Cloth. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 80 , Pt. 3, 157 pages.
Dr. Washburn's study addresses a persistent problem in the analysis of material culture: the fact that type and style categories are typically determined by features selected by investigators rather than those salient to the original makers and users. The author uses sorting procedures from experimental psychology as well as participant observation and interviews to discover nonverbalized and verbalized features that people use as criteria for object categories. The study shows that while two kinds of features are used for category definition--object-specific features and basic perceptual properties--the style of a culture is primarily defined by the way the basic properties are specifically manipulated. This thesis is illustrated by a study of named pattern categories on Bakuba raffia cloth.
The theoretical premise of emic categories, the focus on the kinds of features used in object category definition, and the methodological utility of informant photograph sorting and informant response to computer generated patterns in order to assist in the discovery of categories and their salient features should be of interest to Ethnomathematicians.
The volume is available for $20 from The American Philosophical Society, Box 40098, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA.
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Borba, Marcelo C. (1992). Teaching Mathematics: Ethnomathematics, the Voice of Sociocultural Groups. The Clearing House, vol. 65, no. 3, p. 134-135.
This article suggests that ethnomathematics has "brought political issues into the mathematics education debate" and that "The very power of ethnomathematics and of the work done in this area challenges the notion that mathematics is only produced by mathematicians". It also briefly summaries ethnographic research completed by the author "to map some of the mathematical ideas and activities of children in a slum that developed into an interdisicplinary project in an informal educational setting". That work is published in his Master's thesis, Um Estudo de Etnomatemática: sua Incorporação na elaboração de uma proposta pedagógica para o "Núcleo-Escola Vila Noguiera-São Quirino", UNESP, Río Claro, São Paulo, Brazil.
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Harris, Pam (1991). Mathematics in a Cultural Context: Aboriginal Perspectives on Space, Time and Money, Deakin University Press, Geelong, Victoria 3217, AUSTRALIA, US$29.95.
This book presents the findings of the Mathematics in Aboriginal Schools Project in a single, commercially available volume. The new introduction and appendices describe the context of remote Aboriginal Australia and the schools where the research was done. These descriptions and the accompanying maps and other illustrations were designed to be of particular help to overseas readers and others who have no first-hand knowledge of the context of Aboriginal education in remote communities in Australia. The section on money includes detail about the traditional economies of Australian Aborigines.
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Shan, Sharan-Jeet and Bailey, Peter. Multiple Factors: Classroom Mathematics for Equality and Justice, Trentham Books Ltd, 13/14 Trent Trading Park, Botteslow Street, Stoke-on-Trent, ENGLAND ST1 3LY, £13.95.
This book illustrates how current teaching methodology and school management and the bias in existing textbooks can and often do disadvantage black, working class and girl students, and how this might be changed. The authors have gathered their mathematics from sources across the world and from a multiplicity of disciplines: from Vedas, from global statistics, from architectural principles and art forms.
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Turner, J. K. (1992). Complementarity, Ethnomathematics, and Primary Education in Bhutan, Canadian and International Education, 21 (1), p. 16-36.
This article presents a succinct statment of Dr. Tuner's
Ethnomathematical research that was
conducted in Bhutan from 1986 to 1988. The principle of
complementarity is utilized as a
theoretical structure for the concept of Ethnomathematics, and
the author argues that an
Ethnomathematical teaching medium is essential for achieving
UNICEF's GOBI (the growth
monitoring, oral rehydration, breast feeding, and immunization of
children throughout the world)
project in the Developing World._______________________________
Thomas Hülsmann, Service d'Administration des Projets, B.P. 869, Antanarivo, MADAGASCAR, is involved in the production of primary mathematics books.
Maurice Vodounon, 445 W. 59 St, Dept of Math, John Jay College, New York, NY 10019, USA, works on algorithms in the game Adji om Bahomey.
Barbara Jean Kahn, Box 154, Gibbsboro, NJ 08026, USA, is engaged in an independent study on Ethnomathematics.
James Morrow, Math Dept, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075, USA.
Constantino Jose Machado da Sousa, Jose de Patrocinio 97, 96400 Rio Grande do Sul, BRASIL
Jim Rauff, Math Dept, Millikin University, Decatur, IL 62522 USA, is working on a project on the proto-clamite-Indus connection via numerals.
Ellen Davidson, 30 Walnut St, Somerville, MA
02134, USA, does writing & workshops on
multicultural education, cooperative learning, & learning
& teaching.
Gloria Gilmer, President
Math Tech, Inc.
Ubi D'Ambrosio, 1st Vice President
Universidade Estadual de Campinas
David Davison, 2nd Vice President
Eastern Montana University
Luis Ortiz-Franco, 3rd Vice President
Chapman College
Claudia Zaslavsky, Secretary
New York, NY 10040 USA
Anna Glosgalvis, Treasurer
Milwaukee Public Schools
Patrick (Rick) Scott, Editor
University of New Mexico
Henry A. Gore, Program Assistant
Morehouse College
Jerome Turner, NCTM Rep
St. Francis Xavier University
David K. Mtetwa, Member-at-Large
Marlborough, Harare, ZIMBABWE
Lawrence Shirley, Member-at-Large
Towson State University
Adele Gordon, Box 32410, Braam Fontein 2017, SOUTH AFRICA.
David Mtetwa, 14 Gotley Close, Marlborough, Harare, ZIMBABWE
Ubiratan D'Ambrosio, UNICAMP, Caixa Postal 6063, 13081 Campinas, SP BRAZIL
Andy Begg, Centre for Sicence & Math Ed Research, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, hamilton, NEW ZEALAND
Frédéric Métin, IREM, Moulin de la Housse, 51100 Reims, FRANCE
John Fauvel, Faculty of Mathematics, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UNITED KINGDOM