Mathematics as a Cultural Role Player in School Development: Perspectives From the East and West/Les mathématiques comme acteur culturel de rôle dans le développement scolaire : Perspectives de l'Est et de l'Ouest

In all societies and civilizations, schools are set up primarily to offer and promote socially valued knowledge, experiences, skills, and attitudes geared toward the sustenance and further enrichment of societal norms and goals. Since schools are charged with this weighty responsibility, harnessed a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian and international education 2016-05, Vol.45 (1), p.1
Main Author: Ezeife, Anthony N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addition & subtraction
Attitudes
Child Development
Cognition & reasoning
Core curriculum
Councils
Educational Environment
Learning
Mathematics education
Minority & ethnic groups
Native peoples
Native students
Researchers
School dropouts
Science education
Teaching
Thinking Skills
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In all societies and civilizations, schools are set up primarily to offer and promote socially valued knowledge, experiences, skills, and attitudes geared toward the sustenance and further enrichment of societal norms and goals. Since schools are charged with this weighty responsibility, harnessed and purposeful school development is essential for the achievement of cherished societal goals. Several intertwining factors such as culture, equity, diversity and multiculturalism, etc., contribute to meaningful school development in every society. In the order of hierarchical importance amongst these factors, culture ranks topmost in the list because it (culture) plays a deep and pervasive role in school learning, and by extension, in societal development and harmony. But what is culture? Hollins (1996, p. 18) succinctly defines culture as "the body of learned beliefs, traditions, and guides for behaviour that are shared among members of any human society". In the realm of mathematics education, the learner's culture has been identified as one of the factors that strongly influence and shape learning and performance. In pursuit of one of the set goals (cultural perspectives) of the Mathematics Research Team of the Canada-China Reciprocal Learning Project, this paper delves into the interactions of culture, the environment, and development/implementation of the mathematics curriculum in the East-West learning environments.
ISSN:2369-2634
1927-694X