Ethnomathematics and Modern Globalized Currriculum

What Is Ethnomathematics?

In the current description of ethno-mathematics as given by the International Study Group on Ethno-mathematics (ISGE) the narrow (anthropological) meaning of ethno-mathematics as well as its broad (sociocultural) meaning are combined as follows.

[Ethno-mathematics] is sometimes used specifically for small-scale indigenous societies, but in its broadest sense the “ethno” prefix can refer to any group—national societies, labor communities, religious traditions, professional classes, and so on. Mathematical practices include symbolic systems, spatial designs, practical construction techniques, calculation methods, measurement in time and space, specific ways of reasoning and inferring, and other cognitive and material activities which can be translated to formal mathematical representation. Ethno-mathematics is the application of mathematical ideas and practices to problems that confronted people in the past or are encountered in present contemporary culture. Much of what we call modern mathematics came about as diverse cultural groups sought to resolve unique problems such as exploration, colonization, communications, and construction of railroads, census data, space travel, and other problems solving techniques that arose from specific communities. Simply put, culture affects the ways we acquire and use our own mathematical knowledge; it is possible to apply ethno-mathematical strategies in teaching and learning mathematics. These strategies include, but are not limited to: historical development of mathematics in different cultures (e.g. the Mayan numeration system), prominent people in different cultures that use mathematics (e.g. an African-American biologist, an Asian-American athlete).