Ethnomodelling as the Translation of Diverse Cultural Mathematical Practices

Abstract

One of the major dilemmas in mathematics education in contemporary society is its hidden bias towards a western orientation in its scholarly and research paradigms. While being mindful of emerging glocalization of science, mathematics, religion, art, music, and other aspects of a given culture, the use of innovative or what may seem alternative approaches and methodologies is necessary to record historically diverse forms of mathematical knowledge that occur in distinct cultural contexts. With 500 years of colonization of science and mathematics, it seems important at this critical stage of human development that people look at diverse traditions in the field. So, it is that the authors have come to apply fundamentally different philosophies, modelling techniques, and an ethnomathematical perspective to the mathematics curriculum. It is the linking of mathematics and culture that the authors find appropriate and necessary for a deeper understanding of the development of mathematical knowledge aimed at providing a holistic comprehension of human behavior. It is important to develop an understanding of the role of ethnomathematics and modelling processes in the development of an innovative theoretical basis for ethnomodelling, which uses emic, etic, and dialogic approaches in its investigation process. In this theoretical chapter, the authors demonstrate how ethnomodelling is a pedagogical action for the process of teaching and learning mathematics that challenges the prevailing way of the universality of mathematics and the thinking involved therein.