Chapter 6: The Culture Of Mathematics And The Culture Of School: Conflict, Compromise or Cohesion

This paper deals with the embeddedness of personal mathematical epistemology and pedagogy in a cultural belief system and how a teacher’s beliefs about mathematics affect how mathematics is taught. Also addressed are the varied cultural experiences of the children and their ethnomathematical knowledge vs their formal taught knowledge. A claim is made that 1. children’s personal ethnomathematical knowledge needs to be a valued contribution to a mathematics class; 2. teachers need to examine beliefs about mathematics and, if necessary, question the traditions from which these beliefs have arisen; and 3. mathematics needs to be taught in such a way as to respect children and to respect mathematics, as a fallible, evolving field of study. Some aspects of an ecological approach to the teaching of mathematics are given.