PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Change and Continuity in Mathematics Education in Papua New Guinea

The Role of Mathematics Teacher Education in Overcoming Narrow Neocolonial Views of Mathematics

“…Despite ongoing research within the country, there has been little on mathematics education per se after the mid-1980s when the Mathematics Education Centre declined [5]. Two exceptions in the 1990s were the doctoral studies of Kaleva [6] and Kari [7] which led to research through the Glen Lean Ethnomathematics Centre from 2000 to 2016 [8,9].…”

“…This historical research involved the extensive use of first contact and later documents and memoirs; archaeological and linguistic research from diverse areas and language groups; oral histories; lived experiences; field visits to villages; large research studies on number systems [10], measurement practices [11,12], and mathematical words in different cultures across the country; research studies on mathematics education [5] and teacher education [13,14]; government documents, especially major reports [15][16][17] and plans recommending changes [18][19][20][21][22] to education; syllabuses; and studies on the language of instruction [23][24][25].…”

“…In my studies with Kaleva on measurement, it was found that there are many words for and grammatical ways to express length, area and volume as well as ways to express forces, comparisons and units of measurement [11,12,30]. However, school policies discouraged the use of home languages so often that there was limited understanding of concepts that belonged to village experiences.…”

“…Knowing the lengths of areas was sufficient to compare areas of roughly the same shape [12]. Ratios were used for comparing areas of grass needed for different roof areas or for comparing volumes of pigs or pig fat via their girth, length of body, height from the ground and foot area [11].…”

“…Many discussions with mathematicians, mathematics educators and teachers suggested that home mathematics was not initially recognised without learning about the field of ethnomathematics. Nevertheless, when architecture students were making their first designed sculpture out of paper without glue or tape, they called upon cultural imagery, patterns and practices to create their small but beautiful sculptures [43]. Students at the University of Goroka remarked on the mathematical capabilities of their Elders when they were describing the activities that the students were asking about for their reports on cultural mathematics.…”