Welcome to CMESG 2024 Working Group A: We are part of the living world: Teaching and learning mathematics outdoors, in thoughtful relation with earth, sky, and waters

Hello CMESG colleagues, and welcome! The two of us, Nenad and Susan, are co-leading this working group, and we are looking forward very much to exploring these topics in 'math outdoors' with you. We plan to hold most of our sessions outdoors, in the Boisé de la Santé just across from our main CMESG building --weather permitting!  https://www.ulaval.ca/mon-equilibre-ul/bien-vivre-mon-campus/boise-de-la-sante. Looking forward to an exciting time together!

Nenad Radakovic is an associate professor of STEM education at Queen's University, Kingston, ON. Susan Gerofsky is an associate professor of mathematics education and environmental education at UBC, Vancouver, BC. We are both very interested in teaching and learning mathematics in embodied ways, via the arts, and outdoors, in and with the living world.

Susan speaks French and English, and can facilitate discussion in both official languages of CMESG/ GCEDM. (Both Nenad and Susan speak a number of other languages as well, including Croatian, Portuguese and Mandarin.)

Here is our working group description

Working Group A

Leaders: Susan Gerofsky & Nenad Radakovic

We are part of the living world: Teaching and learning mathematics outdoors, in thoughtful relation with earth, sky, and waters 

Mathematics is often thought of as abstract and disembodied, standing apart from the physical world and personal experience. Platonic/Cartesian mind-body dualism plays into a tradition of mathematics as ‘purely mental’. The ways we customarily do mathematics in classrooms reflect this, with silent, static and obedient learners doing quiet desk work without any real connection to their bodies and senses or the living world around them.

But we are all part of the living world. Taking inspiration from Indigenous worldviews and ways of knowing and learning, we begin to understand that ‘the rocks are our grandfathers and the plants are our grandmothers’ (Kimmerer, 2021; Cole & O’Riley, 2017). Our mathematical ideas come from (and apply to) the world of our experiences with all our living kin.

In this working group, we will explore diverse theoretical perspectives on our relationships with the world, and the mathematical learning arising from these relationships. We acknowledge with gratitude that we will be meeting and learning on the traditional ancestral lands of the Huron-Wendat, the Wabanaki, the Innu, and the Wolastoqiyik peoples. We will draw from a variety of sources, including Western mainstream scientists and mathematicians (for example, Kepler, 1611/2010; Galileo, 1632/2010; Weyl, 1952), from artists and poets (for example, Sakaki, 1999; Major, 2018), and Indigenous theorists of science and human societies (for example, Bartlett, Marshall & Marshall, 2012). Through close, thoughtful observations we will practice noticing mathematical patterns in earth, sky and water. Our activities will include explorations outdoors connecting with plants, landscapes, streams, weather, sun, moon and stars. We will explore mathematical structures and representations that arise from our noticing, and discuss implications for teaching and learning mathematics outdoors.

References

Bartlett, C., Marshall, M., & Marshall, A. (2012). Two-eyed seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2, 331-340.

Cole, P, & O'Riley, P. (2017). Performing survivance:(Re) storying STEM education from an Indigenous perspective. Critical Education, 8(15)

Galileo.(1632/2001). Dialogues Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Modern Library.

Kepler, J. (1611/ 2010). The six-cornered snowflake. Paul Dry Books.

Kimmerer, R. W. (2021). Gathering moss: A natural and cultural history of mosses. Penguin UK.

Major, A. (2018). Welcome to the Anthropocene. University of Alberta Press.

Sakaki, N. (1999). Break the mirror. Blackberry.

Weyl, H. (1952). Symmetry. Princeton University Press.