Knowledge and action for change through culture, community and curriculum

Abstract

At the 1984 International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-5), Ubiratan D’Ambrosio envisioned the creation of a global society where “mathematics for all” reached an unprecedented dimension as a social endeavor by questioning the equilibrium of mathematics education (1986, p. 6). To respond to the challenge three decades later, I will present a contemporary perspective by re-examining the sociocultural role of mathematics education in the schooling process. I will specifically discuss how knowledge and action for change are achieved through intersections of culture, community and curriculum in an ongoing process of navigating and wayfinding in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. This will be accomplished by developing new theoretical insights into honoring and sustaining non-Western cultural systems and practices through examples in mathematics teacher education. In doing so, I will highlight diverse funds of teaching and learning that are grounded in a shared commitment to equity, empowerment and dignity.