Making Math Meaningful with Culturally Relevant Curriculum

December 4, 2019

This post, written by Marley Arechiga of WestEd’s STEM program, first appeared on the Carnegie Math Pathways blog and is posted here with permission.

It’s unusual to see yourself represented in a math problem. Even more unusual if you’re a Native American student in one of the more than 500 tribes dotted across the United States. That’s why Jennifer Morris likes to teach Quantway, Carnegie Math Pathways’ (CMP) accelerated quantitative reasoning course which contains new lessons adapted to Native American community contexts.

“Students know that they’re not represented in the textbooks, and they’ve known it all along,” Morris says, “but until they see themselves represented, they don’t realize what an impact that has.”

Morris, part of CMP’s Networked Improvement Community (NIC), has taught Quantway at the College of Menominee Nation in Wisconsin since 2017. In any given semester, 12 to 16 tribes are represented among the school’s approximately 250 students.

She says it’s a big step forward for her students to see culturally relevant situations in the math, even if it’s not specific to the tribe with which they identify.

“It’s kind of like if you live in a city, you would appreciate word problems about an urban area, whether it’s about your specific city or not,” she said.

One example of how students connect to the Quantway curriculum is the student contract which is required of every student at the beginning of the course to commit to giving their best efforts to the class and to each other.

“Rather than going with the standard normal looking contract, we use the Grandfather Teachings, which is Pan-Indian (not specific to a particular tribe),” she says.

The Grandfather Teachings, according to Morris, are a set of values, such as humility and bravery, common among many tribes. These values are incorporated in the student contract.

“Students will say, ‘We need to be humble enough to give help to other students when they need it,’” she said. “But then more difficult is being humble enough to ask for help when we need it.”

It’s because of the Carnegie Math Pathways course that she’s been able to connect with other tribal colleges and universities and adapt math lessons specifically for their students.

Through the CMP-TCU (Tribal Colleges and Universities) curriculum committee, Morris works with other TCU faculty to create culturally relevant lessons adapted to Native community contexts.

So far, this group has developed 12 lessons which are now available to the Carnegie Math Pathways network.

With the College of Menominee Nation since 2010, Morris serves as the Dean of Retention as well as an adjunct faculty member. Next year her campus will begin teaching CMP’s accelerated statistical reasoning course, Statway.

Resources

Groundbreaking Math Program Dramatically Increases College Completion Rates