Situated Perspectives on Creating Mathematics Tasks for Peace and Sustainability

In this paper, we reflect on our experiences teaching and working with mathematics teachers in Canada, Ghana, India and Swaziland to explore challenges and opportunities for creating mathematics tasks for peace and sustainability. Our exploration of these experiences is oriented around our interest...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of science, mathematics and technology education mathematics and technology education, 2020-06, Vol.20 (2), p.218-229
Main Authors: Yaro, Kwesi, Amoah, Emmanuel, Wagner, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addition & subtraction
Comparative Education
Context
Culturally Relevant Education
Education
Embedding
Engineering/Technology Education
Environmental education
Foreign Countries
Global Approach
Globalization
Local communities
Local Issues
Mathematical analysis
Mathematics
Mathematics Activities
Mathematics Education
Mathematics Teachers
Peace
Place Based Education
Poverty
Science Education
Social Justice
Sustainability
Sustainable Development
Textbooks
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Summary:In this paper, we reflect on our experiences teaching and working with mathematics teachers in Canada, Ghana, India and Swaziland to explore challenges and opportunities for creating mathematics tasks for peace and sustainability. Our exploration of these experiences is oriented around our interest in embedding peace and sustainability into mathematics education following the Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations. We claim that attention to local contexts affords mathematics educators a medium for engaging in authentic, meaningful and context-driven mathematics tasks that address issues of local environmental, cultural and societal concerns. However, we argue that globalisation has already colonised local communities. The associated “technoscientificity”, along with the conservative nature of textbooks, time constraints and the dominant force of poverty remain hindrances in creating mathematics tasks that are issue centric and socially relevant to address concerns of the local community. We end this paper by suggesting a development of a mathematics task to illustrate the possibility of creating what we call a “situated mathematics task” for students that respond to issues of local community using rural Ghana as a context.
ISSN:1492-6156
1942-4051
DOI:10.1007/s42330-020-00083-w