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What Is Ethnomathematics?

• ethnos - within a cultural environment
• mathema - explaining and understanding in order to transcend, managing and coping with reality in order to survive and thrive.
• tics - techniques such as counting, ordering, sorting, measuring, weighing, ciphering, classifying, inferring, and modeling.

An ethnomathematical view point sees mathematical thinking as developing within all cultures according to the following process:

1. Common problems are encountered within a cultural context.
2. Ad hoc solutions are created to individual problems.
3. Generalized methods are developed from ad hoc solutions for the same or similar problems.
4. Theories are developed from these generalized methods.

References

• Borba, M. (1990). Ethnomathematics and Education. For the Learning of Mathematics, 10(1), 39-43.
• D'Ambrosio, U. (1985). Ethnomathematics and its Place in the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics. For the Learning of Mathematics, 5(1), 44-48.
• D'Ambrosio, U. (1990). The History of Mathematics and Ethnomathematics. How a Native Culture Intervenes in the Process of Learning Science. Impact of Science on Society, 40(4) 369-78.