Dr Makaju gets appointed as VC of the Kathmandu University

Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has appointed Dr. Ramkantha Makaju as the Vice-Chancellor of the Kathmandu University (KU). Dr Makaju is the Director at the Dhulikhel Hospital. He will replace the founder and the VC who has been serving KU since its establishment. 

Dr. Ram Kantha Makaju Shrestha founded the Dhulikhel Hospital six years back. He established the hospital after returning from Austria. At present, there 64 nurses and 39 health technicians in the hospital. Dhulikhel hospital has been conducting three-year training in cooperation with Kathmandu University. The hospital is run in cooperation between Dhulikhel Municipality, Association of Health Services and Nepal Med-Austria. 

Wish Dr Makaju to be able to contribute to fulfill the vision of KU, "To become a world class university devoted to bringing knowledge and Technology to the service of Mankind".

Kathmandu University Vice Chancellor Resigns!

The Long serving Vice Chancellor (VC) since its establishment, and the founder, Suresh Raj Sharma resigned from his position on 9th Nov. 2012.

Suresh Raj Sharma, the founder and the Vice Chancellor of Kathmandu University (KU) resigned from his position on 9^th Nov. 2012. With this resignation he has ended his twenty two years long service for the University. The senate has formed a three member committee to recommend a new VC. The Pro-Chancellor of the KU and Minister for Education Dinanath Sharma, Chairman of the KU Board of Trustees Daman Nath Dhungana and Prof Lok Bikram Thapa would recommend names of the candidates to the PM for appointment.
Race for VC has begun and it is learnt that various professors have been lobbying for the prestigious position of the university. Kathmandu University is renowned for its quality education and its increasing popularity in national and international level. Fear of political interference in the selection process has awakened public concern.






Source: published on knicnepal.com on 12th Nov. 2012

A nepali student gang-raped in India

A 21 year old nepali student studying Law in Nagarbhavi near Jnanabharathi Campus of National Law School of India University, Banglore was allegedly raped by a gang of eight near the university premises at 9:30 pm Saturday, 13th October, 2012.

She was out with one of her friend at around 8 pm in a car. They were stopped by a group of men and asked for money and valuables. As the friend of the girl went to fetch the wallet, the men dragged her to the deep forest near the road and gang raped her.

There have been innumerable cases of gang rapes in India these years, specially for foreign nationals. Many nepali students have been choosing Indian universities as options for their university study next to Europe and America. In the context of frequent disturbances in universities and campuses in Nepal, many students find Indian universities as good option for their further studies.

It may be a general phenomenon for people but for a student, such assaults ruin their life. We urge all the parents and students to become careful about security issues and make a good research before deciding to join any university. And an important point to keep in mind is that there are good institutions emerging in Nepal as well. It is time to look for good options in nepal itself, one does not have to join foreign university for exposure, we can have an opportunity to get an exposure through conferences and university collaboration. Also, it is important to note that Nepali universities are also on the line to gaining momentum regarding their status as International.

Source: www.knicnepal.com [published on 17th October, 2012]

KU Selects Papers for the National Mathematical Conference, 2012

Following abstracts have been selected from Kathmandu University for the National Conference on Mathematical Education, which is going to be held on 27th Sep. at World Trade Centre, Tripureshowr.

1. Bal Chandra Luitel
Mathematics education for all: Prospects and challenges (Mathematics education for all)

Written in a self-conscious form of writing, the paper addresses the issue of mathematics education for all fro

m the perspective of inclusion and equity. Key challenges discussed are associated with: a) views of the nature of mathematics as a body of pure knowledge, b) mathematics teaching as transmitting formulas and facts, c) mathematics learning as rote memorization, and d) the dominant goal of mathematics education being guided by technical academic interests. Key prospects are discussed in relation to Nepal’s diverse cultural landscapes which potentially offer ways of developing learning tasks and associated pedagogies with an aim of producing active citizens.

2. Tika Ram Pokhrel
Projects Based Mathematics learning

The way of teaching mathematics in our country need to be accelerated to project based learning. Projects are best instruments for learning mathematics in our context. The project based learning consists of a sequence of tasks to be carried in order to gain experience. Why do we need project based learning and how can we create and use projects is the main concern of the paper. The provision of a situation, selection of project and determination of objectives, planning, execution, evaluation and recording as procedural steps in project method are mentioned. The role of teacher and students are also examined. There should be appropriate policy for including project work in the existing assessment system.

Key Words: Project based learning, Procedures of creating projects, roles of teachers, project based assessment and learning mathematics.

3. Amrit Poudel
Feminism as a referent for mathematics teacher professional development (Teacher Professional Development)

This study narrates possible reasons for my motivations towards culture sensitive mathematics teaching. It focused on my journey to gender sensitive and culturally inclusive mathematics pedagogy for Nepali Schools. My journey starts from ‘anti-motherly’ (sic) mathematics pedagogy and transforms into culturally responsive and gender sensitive teacher, researcher and teacher educator. I have used critical auto\ethnography as a method of research and writing to connect personal to the cultural, placing self within a social context. Agreeing with Freire’s notion of conscientization, which is strictly connected with his notion of “authentic praxis”, an approach to learning that involves a combination of action, reflection and imagining, I can see its potential of helping our mathematics education to be more motherly (i.e., inclusive, meaningful and life skills-oriented). It is a spiritual awakening to find the clear knowledge of Divine Feminine as a nature or earth. For me, education is inquriy and inquiry is education and it is a new way of conceptualizing the curricular goal of education . While mathematics education is inquiry, it also focuses on meaning making, and it goes further. In Harste’s world, ‘the inquiry’ is search for ever broader connections. Writing as inquiry is a tool for thinking rather than a skill to be mastered.
4. Binod P. Pant & Punary Phuyal
Discourse between two paradigms of school mathematics curriculum: conventionality Vs post/modernity (Curriculum)

The great physicist C. P. Snow (1959) of Cambridge University, in his book, The Two Cultures, a Second Look (1964) explained about the existence of two distinct cultures within our society, the arts and the sciences. These two distinct cultures have own standpoints in promoting and improving teaching and learning of mathematics through different approaches. The one who believes society as an entity of pure natural science, it takes mathematics as a pure body of knowledge. Memorization of facts as well as the ability to follow rules are the students’ role (Hiebert, 2003), and to provide clear-cut and step-by-step demonstration are the teachers’ duty. In this approach, teachers advocate behaviorist approach as taken for granted, and the textbooks are taken as the ultimate authority from whence “the answers to all mathematical problems are known and found” (Smith, 1996). The paper pencil test measures the memorization of the facts and focuses on “routine problems”. On the other hand, who believes cultures as an art, it takes knowledge can be constructed. It aims at assisting students in utilizing their own unique backgrounds and experiences to develop a personal understanding of mathematical situations. This is known as constructivism where students involve in a new task with prior knowledge, assimilate new information, and, subsequently, construct their own meaning (Amit and Fried 2002). As children construct their own understanding based on the relationship between prior knowledge, existing ideas, and new experiences, the facilitator should encourage “to construct with new ideas, to work at fitting them into existing networks, and to challenge their own ideas and those of others” (Van De Walle 2007). In this approach, it is widely accepted that the learner must herself/himself actively explore mathematical concepts in order to build the necessary structures of understanding, it then follows that teaching mathematics must be reconceived as the provision of meaningful problems designed to encourage and facilitate the constructive process” (Schifter and Fosnot, 1993). This paper aims to bring a discourse between the above two paradigms of teaching mathematics.

5. Amrit Thapa 

Myths of mathematical intelligence and dis/empowering pedagogy of teaching: A critical auto/ethnographic inquiry

It was an evocative experience for me to have conducted a research on the topic “Math teachers’ beliefs, experiences and democratic practices in mathematics classroom”, as part of qualification of Master of Education. Employing Auto/Ethnographic research approach (Willis, 2007) enabled me to excavate my own beliefs and practices including the research participants. Astonishingly the inquiry indicated that the teachers’ beliefs about ‘innate math talent/intelligence’ was so deeply ingrained in practice that the learning environment was creating a form of class struggle between ‘is intelligent’ and ‘is not intelligent’. Teachers’ beliefs largely emphasized on mathematical knowledge as abstract, formal and absolute promoting text book centred assessment to distinguish student math-ability and hence the discriminatory pedagogy of teaching. Working as a teacher educator, university student and university faculty gave me ample opportunity to explore deeper into the beliefs of math teachers. These experiences have enabled me to draw my attention towards a serious form of discrimination, suppression and hence the cultural oppression (Freire, 1993) in the classroom. It is terrible to know that the universalisation or de/contextualization (Luitel, Taylor, 2010) of mathematical knowledge creates uninteresting pedagogy of mathematics forcing students to develop a sense of giftedness hence putting themselves into one of the two compartments, the gifted and not-gifted. Unconvincing categorization of students with innate intelligence (Gardner,1983) by means of narrowly defined academic math courses has been promoting unjust and dis-empowering pedagogy of mathematics teaching/learning thereby endorsing violence against democracy and peace. After rigorous research I have come to the stand that intelligence cannot be narrowly defined (Robinson, 2006) and hence cannot be measured through narrowly structured assessment tools.

6. Tulshi Ram Pandey
Teaching Mathematics: A Shift in Terms of Applying Participatory Pedagogies (Teacher Professional Development)

This paper entitled “Teaching Mathematics: A Shift in Terms of Applying Participatory Pedagogies” is an autoethnographic inquiry which aims to excavate experiences that I have gained in the journey of teaching and learning of mathematics. In this paper, I focus on pedagogical growth and changes that I have witnessed from my early years of profession as a primary teacher to my most recent arrival in this research work. This epic journey has also seen the moments of failure that I could not make in pedagogical shifts visible, despite my frequent attempts in trying to apply participatory pedagogies in mathematics teaching based on my ideals of transformative learning.
To articulate my visions about teaching and learning of mathematics as a student and as a teacher, I have used autoethnography, the method and genre of my research. Furthermore, I have drawn on the theory of radical constructivism that regards knowledge as a result of an individual’s constructive activity guided by seeing the viabilities rather than sticking in the validity. With this, I employed “small p” philosophical inquiry that gives emphasis on the personal meaning making and meaning seeking process.

7. Ramesh Neupane
On becoming an arts-informed teacher of mathematics (pedagogy)

Being mathematics teacher of the post-modern (?) era, this is my responsibility to reflect, critic and enhance my practices and see the new possibilities from more than ‘3600 angles’ of social, professional and personal life. For me post-modern philosophy means an acceptance of multiple perspectives offering new ways of seeing through mathematics, teachers and learners (Ernest, 2012). I am here to explore a series of experiences that I had and I am having. The main goal of this article is to explore possibilities of teaching mathematics in more comprehensive ways in Nepal through post-modern thought and actions.

8. Binod Pd. Pant
Teachers' Professional Development through Self-reflection

Self- reflection is about thinking over own actions and acting in interaction with the environment, and with the colleagues, which can have inner dialogue with him/herself. For a teacher, it requires honesty to oneself and to other people; it can be very useful due to verisimilitude nature in different psychological and pedagogical aspects in the classroom. As it modifies the practices towards the better every time, it is widely accepted that reflection is a crucial in the professional development. While doing so, it creates a sense of empowerment, self-realization and solidarity to the teachers. So, it is taken as a agent of change (Artzt, 2002). I believe that the better teaching approach cannot be generated over night; it is neither a ready-mate stuff to apply as it is from someone experience nor it is skill, nor can be developed from a session in a conference or in training. It is a continuous process, which can be developed through observing ones' own practices. Pollard and Tann (1993) believe that, "the process of reflection feeds a constructive spiral of professional development and competence” (p. 4). Reflection is definitely a vital skill as it can be considered to be a key to teacher development. It can be either intuitive or systematic and organized; it enables teachers to become aware of their weak and strong points. Absence of such awareness would make a further teacher grow impossible. Reflection should “lead to the conscious development of insights into knowing-in-action” (Wallace, 1991 p. 13). This paper aims to bring the importance of personal reflection for teacher development and its' usefulness and popularity in transformative education research (Luitel, 2009).
Key Words: self-reflection, knowing-in-action, transformative education research
9. Pundary Phuyal
Reconceptualizing "teaching experiment" in mathematics

Being a mathematics teacher in school level for more than ten years, I believe that my students need to go beyond making thinks "products". They need to develop creative mathematical thinking and problem solving skills and I am the one who is responsible for building strong foundations to my students. Otherwise, students' new demands cannot be met through passive, rote-oriented learning focused on basic skills and memorization of disconnected facts. We need mathematics learning that" enables critical thinking, flexible problem solving, transfer of skills and use of knowledge in new situations" (Darling – Hammod, 2008, p.2). The activities of doing mathematics should be viewed with a playful attitude and confidence. But, how can I promote such a playful attitude? I, perhaps, have to design such a technique that investigates my students' mathematical knowledge and how it might be learned in the context of mathematics teaching. I perhaps need such type of teaching methodology, which is lived. I investigate in order to improve learning in my classrooms and beyond, which is, I believe, "Teaching Experiment Methodology". In this paper, I discuss about teaching experiment methodology, its' usefulness in mathematics classroom and its' affect to the students' learning.

10. Indramani Shrestha
Transforming mathematics education landscape from de-contextualize to contextualize

11. Surendra Singh Thagunna
Significance of geometry: Relating geometry with real life (pedagogy)

Geometry is very useful in our daily life. The study of geometry has started right from the human civilization. But, many of us, including me, have bitter experiences in learning and teaching geometry. A significant number of students show dissatisfaction in geometry, and they do not secure good grade from geometry portion. I realized that geometry teaching is a challenging job. Therefore, I came to write this paper, which presents an overview of the attitudes of learners and teachers towards teaching learning of geometry as well as trends and challenges of teaching learning methods of geometry in Nepal. Yet more, this paper depicts the real scenario of the problems faced by the people in their daily lives due to lack of geometrical knowledge and thus tries to relate theoretical concepts of geometry with daily life problems. This paper aims to develop an insight into learners, teachers and other professionals about the significance of geometry in real life and the ways of making geometry classroom more enjoyable and effective with the various practical problems.

12. Satya Raj Joshi
Recovering individualized teaching through humanistic nature of mathematics (pedagogy)

The paper aims to explore the distinction between mathematics education that ethically applies in existing versions of mathematics and mathematics education that seeks to recast mathematics as an unavoidably and undeniably humanistic enterprise. The essence of this paper is to seek the possibilities of linking mathematics with the aesthetic activities of human where I present my understating of god, beauty and truth. This paper advocates to the beliefs that human society have close relationship to the formal mathematical models, and mathematics is/for human society developed by the same society. I do not believe that mathematical formalism is an alien language, which exist somewhere else than our society. More generally, I believe this paper would be helpful for anyone who is curious about the nature of mathematical and humanistic thought and their relationship to the universe.

13. Surendra Mishra
Beliefs and practices of mathematics teacher as a means for transforming teacher identity (Teacher Professional Development)

In this paper, I will address different aspects of my research that examines Beliefs and practices of mathematics teacher as a means for transforming identity. Since my research is about teacher identity and beliefs and its effects on practices, so I would share my experiences of teaching and learning mathematics (especially algebra) as a teacher as well as a student. I will share my experience as a teacher as well as student by describing the events in the form of stories. I will include two stories as a teacher and as a student.

14. Surendra Prasad Singh
Application of information Technology in the Mathematics Classroom

Application of technology in the classroom cannot be avoided. Technology is developed and available at reasonable price and knowledge of technology can be combined to improve teaching of international level. According to Piaget knowledge is constructed through assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium.ICT can help to improve teaching learning by using multimedia in the classroom. The process can be improved by providing prerequisites, prompt feedback of ineffective learning strategies. This paper will try to show with help of slides how teaching of geometry with ICT can save time and energy but with clarity.
15. Ruma Manandhar
Can Abstract Algebra be taught meaningfully?

This paper, being focused in learning of abstract algebraic structure group, tries to deal on the overall understanding process followed by the students, their difficulties, different levels of understanding to be connected for making students able to produce a proof based on an empirical study.

16. Bedraj Acharya
Pedagogical Practices in the Mathematics Classroom at Primary School in Nepal: A Cultural Perspective

In this article, I have articulated mathematics classroom practice in Nepalese schools. The main purpose of my study was to explore classroom practices in mathematics in diverse cultural setting. I adopted ethnographic approach to inquiry to describe the realities about classroom practices of mathematics teaching and learning. The classroom teaching - learning situation was observed on the basis of the classroom episodes. I observed classroom episodes / practices of three schools of the Kathmandu Valley to achieve the research objective. I obtained the different data texts from my potential participants. Then, I discussed the data texts from different sociological perspectives with my critical reflection. It was found that lecture-based teaching activities, less participatory teaching, and lack of teachers' knowledge to teach mathematics in the different cultural setting were the major factors for not facilitating learning mathematics in culturally diverged classroom environment. Teachers were theoretically familiar about the student- centered, participatory, child friendly and democratic classroom. However, in practice, they were not successful in applying these techniques in the actual classroom.
17. Raghubir Bhatta
Implication of Constructivism Teaching Theory on Classroom Teaching

Constructivism learning theory is the further development as behaviorism arrives at cognitivism. According to its teaching theory: knowledge is uncertain; the learning process of knowledge is also the construction process of knowledge; students are the main body of learning activity and they construct knowledge on their own initiatives; teachers are the helpers and the drivers for students constructing knowledge. These views generate more implications for Nepal’s teaching reform, what affect the reform of learning theory and teaching theory in a sense and turn into the theoretical base for our education reform. This article tries to probe into the implication of constructivism teaching theory on our school teaching. This article is the product of writer's intervention in higher secondary school teaching of Mathematics.
18. Harsh B. Chanda
Analysis of errors on solving problems from geometry course of secondary level

Teaching and learning Euclidean geometry in school level is problematic from many decades. So, many researches have been conducted in this area. This article presents results of research conducted to attain objective 'to analyze and interpret errors committed by secondary school students in solving problems from geometry'. The research was conducted by using written test, interview schedule (Newman) and interview schedule (van Hiele). The result shows that maximum students were found in lower level of van Hiele model of thinking than the required level of thinking to solve problem so that maximum errors were occurred in either comprehension or transformation level.

19. Bishnu Khanal
Teaching Styles perceived by primary level mathematics students

The study was conducted to investigate primary school students’ perception of their teachers’ teaching styles. The observation, interview and researcher’s introspection were different tools adopted for the collection of information. The study was guided by learning theories: cognitivism, behaviorisms, and constructivism. The study concluded that the primary teacher’s teaching style was perceived as indifferent and authoritarian types.

Council for Mathematics Education Nepal plans to organize National Conference in Mathematics Education

Council for Mathematics Education Nepal is organizing National Conference in Mathematics Education, 2012 on 27th of September, 2012. All mathematics teachers, mathematics education scholars (including Masters students) and other professionals working in the area of mathematics education are invited.  The registration fee is Rs. 500. Please contact the Kathmandu University School of Education or the department of mathematics in TU. 

National Conference in Mathematical Education, 2012
Conference Theme: Mathematical Education in Diverse Nepalese Contexts
Venue: World Trade Centre, Tripureshwor
Date: September 27, 2012

Organizer: Council for Mathematics Education, Department of Mathematics Education TU, supported by School of Education KU, Nepal Mathematical Society, Nepal Mathematics Centre, Nepal Statistical Centre, Department of Education MoE, National Centre of Education Development DoE/MoE, Curriculum Development Centre DoE/MoE, National Academy of Science and Technology.

Introduction
It is our great pleasure to announce the National Conference on Mathematical Education, 2012. We feel proud to extend our warmest welcome to mathematics teachers, teacher educators, researchers, professors and the pioneers of mathematics education from the various parts of the country in a place.The organizing committee aims to share the ideas and the research outcomes on the development of mathematical education, its present scenario and the future opportunities and challenges. Further, the conference will provide nutrients for thought and inspiration for practice for all, from international delegate Bill Barton, the President of International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) and the national distinguished personalities of mathematical education.

Key Note Speaker: Prof. William David (Bill) Barton, President ICMI
Positions Held
Professor, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, The University of Auckland
Associate Dean International, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland,
President, International Commission of Mathematical Instruction (ICMI)
Educational Qualification
M.Sc.(Mathematics), Ph.D. Mathematics Education, University of Auckland
Research Specialities
Socio-cultural and political dimension of Mathematics Education (Ethnomathematics and Mathematics &Language) and professional development of secondary and tertiary teachers, especially mathematical knowledge for teaching.
Distinctions/Rewards and Publications
Awarded different fellowships and awards, and has more than 50 publications
Experiences
More than 30 years teaching and research experiences, supervised more than 30 Masters Projects and 7 completed PhDs

Participants
All member of mathematical education community can participate in the conference viz mathematicians, mathematics educators, school teachers, university students and other personalities related to mathematical education.
Call for Papers
In addition to the keynote speech, the conference will include oral presentations and poster presentations. The oral presentations (preferably based on PowerPoint slides) will be of 10 minutes followed by a 5 minutes q/a session. Participants are invited to submit their presentations for consideration for inclusion in the conference proceedings. We call the papers from the participants on the following, but not limited to, themes:

1. Curriculum Issues and Curriculum Framework
2. Mathematics Education for All
3. Learning and Assessment
4. Pedagogical Practices
5. Teachers Professional Development
6. Local and Global Mathematical Practices
The last date of paper submission is September 10, 2012. Papers should be sent to the Conference Academic Committee by email before the last date. The Committee reserves every right to select original, well written and relevant papers for the oral presentation and poster display. Papers which are not selected for the presentation may be included in the proceedings after the revision of an initial draft.

Guidelines for the Paper
The following instructions are to be used as a guide for preparing your paper. To assist the conference organizers, please ensure that your submission conforms to the following conventions.
Item Requirement
Length of Paper 1. The length of the paper, including abstract and body of text should be about 1500 to 2000 words.
Page set-up
1. Page size: A4
2. Margins: Normal
3. Orientation: Portrait
Title of paper 1. Font: Times New Roman14 pt Bold
2. Immediately follow the title with name(s) of the author(s), institution(s)
3. Centered
Abstract 1. Maximum length of abstract is 250 words
2. Leave two blank lines between title-author heading and abstract text. Begin the first word at the extreme left.
3. Type the entire abstract as single paragraph.
4. Leave one blank line, and then begin the line with the word Keywords. Indicate no more than five (5) keywords for your paper.
Body text The body text of your paper should conform to the following
1. Font: Times New Roman 12pt
2. Paragraph alignment: Fully justified
3. Paragraph Spacing
a. Single line spacing for each paragraph
b. One line spaces between each paragraph.
c. No paragraph indents
Footnotes 1. The necessary footnotes are welcome
Figures, diagrams & tables 1. The conference organizers may need to resize your submitted images.
2. Each diagram, figure, table and picture should have a title using the following guide
a. Figure 1: Title (Times New Roman 10 pt Bold)
3. When using labels within a diagram, figure, table and picture please ensure that labels have a horizontal orientation.
Referencing: 1. APA Style

Poster presentation
The guidelines for paper submission for poster presentation are the same as for the oral presentation. The poster, in the form of hard copy, should be 2 ft by 3ft in size. The posters can contain texts, photographs, graphs, tables etc. The accepted posters will be posted in the poster section one day before the conference day (September 26). The authors should present in the conference premises with their posters on that day. The authors should be available in front of their posters in the allocated time for the discussion with the interested participants. 

Submission of Papers
You are requested to submit the papers and posters to one of the following mails.
1) Prof. Dr. Hari Prasad Upadhyaya, h_dahal@yahoo.com
2) Dr. Lekhnath Sharma, lnsharma_009@yahoo.com
3) Dr. Bal Chandra Luitel,bcluitel@kusoed.edu.np

Conference language
The keynote addresses and the other papers will be presented in English.
Conference Time
The conference begins at 8:00 am and ends at 4:30 pm.
Registration
Registration opens from September 1, 2012. The last day of registration is September 25, 2012. The registration fee is NRs. 500.

Prof. Dr. Hari Prasad Upadhyay
Coordinator
Academic Committee
National Conference Organizing Committee, MEC

Symposium on "Transformative Reserach" held at KUSOED

Symposium    [Saturday, 30^th June 2012]

Kathmandu University School of Education organized a Symposium on “Transformative Research Methodology” at the conference hall of KUSOED, Balkumari, Lalitpur, Nepal. The program was held on 30^th of June, 2012 from 10 am to 3 pm. Prof. Dr. Peter Taylor gave the keynote speech. His ideas focused on the need of transformative research methodology in the present context of globalization, technology and urbanization. Dr. Bal Chandra Luitel shed light on the present context of research methodologies that have been dominant around the world and in Nepal. The presentations were quite useful for the scholars who have been working for their research agendas in different levels. Around 120 participants, working in M.Ed., M.Phil and Ph.D studies, from different universities including KU, TU were present in the program.

Another important aspect of the program was that besides listening to the presentations, the participants were divided into different groups according to their research interests and the research approaches they were trying to employ in their research. The different groups were facilitated by the Suresh Gautam (Ph.D student) and M.Phil by Research scholars, Amrit B. Thapa,  Amrit Poudel, Binod Pant and Pundary Phuyal respectively. The workshops provided an opportunity for participants to discuss/share openly about the research agendas they have been exploring and their approach to the investigation. Research scholars were enriched with comments and opinions provided in the workshop. Question and answer session towards the end of the session was quite helpful to satisfy the curiosities of the research scholars.

The huge presence of participants and their active participation indicated the increasing interest of students in research.
The program was managed and facilitated by

Dr. Bal Chandra Luitel, 
Suresh Gautam, Amrit .B. Thapa, 
Amrit Poudel, Binod Pant and Pundary Phuyal

Mathematics, Culture, Politics And Ethnomathematics

Mathematics, Culture, Politics And Ethnomathematics:

By Amrit Thapa

[Reviewed 27th April, 2012]
Fourth Semister 2007

Kathmandu University

History of mathematics:

Researches about the history of development of human species (available till the date) suggest that mathematics has been developed initially as guided by the basic requirements for the survival; this includes food habits, climate, space and other natural factors. As mentioned by D’Ambrosio (2001), Homo Sapins have been considered as living on the earth about forty thousand years ago. Australopithecus known as preceding the Homo Sapins lived in or somewhere near today’s Tanzania 5 million years ago and spread all over the world. Due to the power of analyzing, comparing and communication of the knowledge with the experiential world, these species transformed themselves as influenced by the climate, availability of food, available space, growing population and other factors. As these species spread to different places, they encountered new environment, climate, food and spaces. To tackle with new challenges in life they constructed new ideas and techniques. They shared their ideas through symbols, pictures and other forms of languages. This socially accepted knowledge formed a culture which further reconstructed and shared generation to generation.

Study shows that Australopithecus used chiseled stone to clean animal carcasses, it would make possible to scrape the bone, and thus, not only make use of every piece of meet but also extract nutrients from the bone that would not be possible only with teeth. They had to develop this instrument because their most common food was meat of animals and birds. As the population increased, they encountered deficiency of food they had to invent eating plant body parts or the fruits and hence had to develop farming. Thus the need for survival and curiosity for knowing have influenced people for inventing mathematical ideas like counting, measurements, and other systems in mathematics. The culture and religions are the systems of knowledge that we share and accept as common knowledge.

Mathematics, Culture and Politics:

The construction of mathematical or ethnomathematical knowledge has been greatly affected by the political interests. About 2500 years ago (D’Ambrosio, 2001) Greeks and Romans expanded their domain eastward of Mediterranean capturing the thousand-year-old civilizations such as Persia, India. The conquerors destroyed or colonized (or claimed as their own) the knowledge system of the conquered people and imposed their own knowledge system to present themselves as superior. The conquerors not only imposed their system of knowledge but sometimes they tried to destroy the objects representing the original knowledge system or they were eliminated from the territory or punished to death. However, not only the conquered got influenced from the culture of conquerors but sometimes the invaders also got influenced from the local culture and reconstructed their knowledge system to fit the new environment. For example, the black Africans taken to America not only got influenced from the American culture but they brought African culture in U.S and the American ethno-culture got influenced from the culture of the slaves taken from Africa. This has occurred also in the British and other European colonizers. They have reformed their mathematical knowledge after they colonized India, China and other countries in Asia and Africa. But due to lack of acknowledgement of the source of influence the academic mathematics looks different than what practiced in different cultures.

Thus, ethnomathematics values cultural construction of knowledge than universalizing the knowledge. Saying this does not mean to indicate that we need to ignore the important inventions in mathematics; ethnomathematics encourages to research on ethnic groups, identify the mathematical ideas in practice and incorporate them to the curriculum and text books so that these knowledge help learners understand and become comfortable in applying the system of knowledge in their day to day life. Ethnomath does not try to displace the mathematical inventions made earlier in Europe and America but it tries to re-enforce the world of math with further researches of ethnic inventions. It works in widening the field of math. Its emphasis is onto “mathematics for all”. This is more valuable for the country like our which is full of diverse ethnic cultures.

Talking only about ‘western curriculum’ and ‘western occupation’ in our schools and academic institutions will be an injustice and an immature decision. As the issue of large and small culture aroused in the above discussion, it is necessary to define what is meant by large and small culture. Can the knowledge be evaluated with respect to the population? Can it be restricted within the boundaries? So, who is the owner of the knowledge? Is the professor or a researcher who collects knowledge from students or the field of research an inventor of the knowledge? Or the actual inventors of the knowledge are the farmers, carpenters, sailors or other people who actually observe and experience in their day to day life. This is to be made clear before we actually enter into acknowledging the knowledge. In many researches and history books we can read that the mathematical knowledge have been contributed by different cultures like Egyptians, Babylonians, Indians and so and so. But there arise questions, who were Egyptians? Does “Egyptian civilization” represent the people who actually involved in the invention of the mathematical knowledge? Does “Arabian culture” represent the inventors who might have been in a minority ethnic culture within the large boundary of Arab? Will it be fair that all the ethnic communities who contributed in knowledge invention called as the inventions of the Indians? Will it be a justice to the inventors who lived in ethnic minority within the covering of huge population ignored and called their works as the work of the well known cultures and civilizations? Indians invented Number system, where is (the ancient) India and what was its boundary? Which people represent India? Are all the ethnic communities bounded by the boarder lines of India represented by the so called Indian faces? Can we call the inventions of the people living in a remote corner of India in an ethnic minority as the inventors of the so-called Indian Mathematics? What about the people living in different adjacent territories of the Indian subcontinent?

Thus the above discussion arises more questions. Is it possible that the number system as said to be invented in India covers Nepal in the assumption of that historical time? That means is it possible that the number system be developed by a farmer or a shepherd in the remote part of Nepal? So it means we need to find the place in Nepal where, how and in what culture and profession the knowledge was constructed. It may be a Gurung, Rai, Tamang, Chepang, Tharu, Dalits or other Janjatis. So is there any reason to claim that upper casts and people with majority claim themselves as superior of knowledge? Thus, there may evolve innumerable possibilities, besides accepting others’ ideas as the universal truths people around the world need to unearth the history and live with high-esteem.

We really need to thank D’Ambrosio of Brazil who helped us and the people around the world to understand and free ourselves from the intellectual colonization of western and so-called developed cultures. This is the world where many scientists and researchers lost their lives for attempting to disprove or reject the knowledge (as the only truths) established by the western and other powers. History shows that the economic powers have always tried to suppress other’s knowledge in the name of humanity and civilization. There have been attacks to different civilizations for the treasure of knowledge, economically weak civilizations have been destroyed and the knowledge and their recognition swept away. So it can be imagined that there may be hidden powers indirectly working to stop the comrades of ethnomathematics from excavating the hidden realities.

Ethnomatheamtics and Future:

Now to discuss about how the program “ethnomathematics” may contribute to empower ethnic cultures and individuals, it is necessary to know the meaning of the term “ethnomathematics” and its purposes. The prefix ‘ethno’ from ethnography refers to the study of mathematics in relation to culture. According to the proponent D’Ambrosio the term “ethnomathematics” can be defined as the study of mathematics that takes into consideration the culture in which mathematics arises by understanding the reasoning and the mathematical systems that they use. Culture refers to a set of norms, beliefs and values that are common to a group of people who belong to the same ethnicity. The people share a language, a place, traditions, and ways of organizing, interpreting, conceptualizing and giving meaning to their physical and social world (Hammond, 2000).

The people living in different cultures invented different mathematical ideas while attempting to organize, systematize and improve their livelihood with the changing time and world. The raw ideas invented by members of a culture are shared within the periphery of the culture through the language and activities. They are tested and verified or further modified due to change in time and need. This clearly indicates the cultural construction of mathematical knowledge. The evidences of some ethnomathematical researches show that different cultures in different places practiced different forms of mathematical knowledge. However, the western occupation and domination so paralyzed the human life in the third world countries that people considered math as the collection of truths discovered by the power houses of the intelligence which resided in the western culture. It is evident that even in western culture mathematics has been defined in different ways but the so-called intellectuals try to formalize and universalize the definitions and its contents.

From the above arguments it is clear that mathematics is a cultural construct, this helps us to be confident that our culturally rich and diverse society is full of such hidden mathematical treasures which are yet to be uncovered. The externally designed curriculum and the mathematical knowledge imported in the form of text books have brain-washed our children who are the pillar of the future. The foreign structure and hidden interests of designers not only fade the interest of students in mathematical learning but also it helps to produce individuals with low self-esteem and with disrespect to own culture and land. Very poor pass rates in our examinations and failure of individuals produced from the academic institutions in market and work place shows the failure of foreign curriculum (Luitel, 2009). Thus, it is a very immediate requirement of our society, market and the interest of the country to incorporate the practices of different cultures into local and national curriculum. This will definitely help generate interest in learners towards mathematics as they see the application in their day to day life.

Incorporating the ideas and inventions of ethnic groups and people living in minority in the text books will help children understand the value of all the people living in the society. The clashes and dissatisfaction appearing in the recent days in our country and all around the globe suggests the immediate need of an environment where every individual is respected for his/her own culture and given opportunity to enjoy and preserve her/his own identity. This will help establish democratic feelings in the minds of new generation. Ultimately this will help developing a democratic, prosperous, class-free and clash-free society. At the end, as the curriculum focuses on local need and planning for future it will definitely trace a smooth path for the future.

Referrence:
D’Ambrosio, U. (2001). Ethnomathematics. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Hammond, T. (2000). Ethnomathematics: Concept definition and research perspectives. An unpublished master’s thesis, Columbia University, New York.

Luitel, B. C. (2009). Culture, worldview and transformative philosophy of mathematics education in Nepal: A cultural-philosophical inquiry. PhD, Curtin University, Perth.

Ernest, Paul (1994a): Social constructivism and psychology of mathematics education. In P.Ernest (Ed). Constructing mathematical knowledge; Epistemology and mathematics education (pp. 62-72). London: The Falmer Press.
Restive, Sal (1994). The social life of mathematics. In P.Ernest (Ed.) Mathematics education and philosophy: An international perspective (pp. 154-161). London: The Falmer Press.
Zaslavsky, C. (1999). Africa Counts: Number and pattern in African cultures (Third ed.) Chicago: Lawarence Hill.


KUMES (28th April, 2012): Mr Amrit B. Thapa is currently working as a visiting faculty at the Kathmandu University, facilitating Masters of Education Classes. He is a full time faculty/coordinator at Rato Bangala School, Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur. He has been working as a Teacher Educator, he is working at RBF (Rato Bangala Foundation) and has conducted numerous (short) Teacher Professional Development Programs in different institutions. He is interested in working for empowering/democratic education for sustainable peace.

My Exploration of Culturally Embedded Mathematics

My Exploration of Culturally Embedded Mathematics

Amrit Bahadur Poudel
M.Ed Mathematics
Kathmandu University

While I was in high school, the image of mathematics was a subject of discoveries of the brilliant people around the world. Learning mathematics was to learn to take the challenges. I had no idea about the purpose of studying mathematics in school. Another motivating factor was that it is a subject which is compulsory to most of the good streams of studies. My teacher never told us that mathematics is a social and culture product. How people use mathematics and how it help people in their public life was not of any concern for me. I never imagined that the people around me in my village are also the inventors and the ones using the mathematical knowledge.

After taking the classes in the master’s degree in Kathmandu University, I came to know that mathematics is not a culture free subject. I still remember the moments of discussions in the class about the contextualization in curriculum. I was shocked with the wrong belief about the concepts and understanding in math I had.
Contextualizing a curriculum is a big issue. There is no exact measurement to measure the level of contextualization. As I learnt from the M.Ed classes, contextualization is a process of adapting the concepts of math in relation to the social and cultural values of the places where the learners live. This helps the learners to understand the value of learning math and find an appropriate use of mathematical ideas in their immediate life.

In the present context, the curriculum of our country is centrally prepared and has an imposed notion of teaching. The interest of the Nepalese students and their level of understanding, culture and social norms are not duly considered. Students in Jumla are expected to understand and solve the problems of electricity and taxes and service charges without any additional support in an equal proportion to the students of urban area. Even the students of urban area have knowledge of high level calculation but are confused when given simple problems of daily shopping and banking transactions. Thus the present curriculum and the textbooks are not fulfilling the present need of our nation.

Thus our curriculum and the teaching strategies are in a transition phase to be changed. In such a situation I have got the opportunity to involve in the "Developing culturally contextualized Mathematics Resource Materials: Capturing Practices of Woman and Disadvantaged Comminutes”. I have been guided to explore the cultural, social and individual activities through ethnographical research methods. I have been encouraged to search for various cultural, social and individual practices and pedagogical implications of a culture sensitive curriculum. To develop a culture sensitive curriculum, we observed the every day activities of the stakeholders such as students, parents, teachers and school management committee members.

In Taukhel, I tried to observe the mathematical implications in the local community. It was not so easy like collecting the stones out of the grains of rice to collect the mathematical applications in the local community like this where I never had been before and never had such research experience besides studying the philosophy of math in text books and in the class. The evidences were not readymade so that I could ask the people and dig the place where the objects were hidden. It was like diving into an Ocean to discover a pearl. Even I knew that the people were not ready to try to explain their practices because it was difficult for them to define their day to day works into a formula. Though they used different mathematical concepts invented by themselves and their ancestors, they had no idea what exact pattern or system they have been using. Even they had difficulty to recall the day to day activities and other social norms where they use certain mathematical rules and patterns. Since they used their knowledge instantly whenever they required, they never kept any account of the knowledge they used in their life. They didn’t have any system of collecting important skills or formulas they frequently required, their mind worked as the dictionary of everything. So I needed to plan and study their way of life and social and cultural reality before I actually could start my research.

For this, I chose one girl-student, her parents, her teacher and one of the women from the school management committee. My respondent student (Sarita) found mathematics very tough subject among the subjects she studied in her school. Math has always been her headache in her studies. Though she wanted and tried to be good in math, it has been a most difficult job to accomplish in her life. However as I observed her activities at home I found her using many mathematical concepts carefully and successfully without actually knowing the formula or any formal definition. She could make appropriate proportion of salt while she cooked the food for her guests. This demonstrated that she had a good idea of proportion. If her teacher would have given the examples of making appropriate proportion of salt or such other examples which occur in student’s day to day life while teaching Proportions, it would have bee very useful for students to understand the concept of Proportion.

She used a circular stone when she played with her friends; they played a game called chatti with one leg. She made different rectangular partitions of a big rectangle where she can stand and jump from one room to another. While she played, she jumped over alternate rectangles with one leg and sometimes she jumped over two rectangles. Her friends understood the rules of the game and the shapes of the geometrical figures for their game but not for their math in the school. They never wrote the rules in a formal format but they conveyed to each other whenever they gathered to play. They sometimes changed the patterns and made new rules according to their comfort or according to the number of members. Thus they had good idea about the patterns and geometrical figures but they never connected the activities while they studied the same patterns in the school.

Sarita and her mother normally kept the glasses of tea in a fixed pattern whenever they cleaned the glasses. They could exactly manage to place all the glasses on a small row of a rack which at the beginning was difficult for me to understand. They were very much used to with the sequence; I must say that the sequence they used in their home was purely invented by them. She easily understood the sequence she used while she arranged the glasses at home but I guess she will possibly fail in the test of the “sequence and series” chapter if she studied Additional mathematics in grade ten. There were lots of patterns and mathematical ideas the people used in their day to day life. It was a moment of joy when I found that the simple people with simple life in poverty in the remote corner of the earth use such interesting mathematical ideas. I enjoyed my journey and will be my pleasure to meet the people again and discover the inventions of the mathematicians living in the economically poor part of Nepal with the simple instruments of iron and wood in their hands and beautiful ladies with the with eye catching bamboo nets on their back. I remember the days in the following ways:

Oh! Beautiful lady,
You didn’t use any paste,
But your smiles with silver line of teeth,
gave a memorable taste.

Oh! Beautiful lady,
You don’t care what the hell mathematics is,
But I remember the math in your steps,
when you danced in the cool breeze.

Oh! Beautiful lady,
I am so sorry,
I enclosed all the beautiful patterns you made without the protractor,
But, but,
I am so sorry,
I forgot to take a single snap of the inventor.

Oh! Beautiful lady,
You are making me crazy.

KUMES (27th April, 2012): Amrit B. Poudel has been working as a teacher educator. His interests have been in Contextualization of Mathematics and Mathematics teaching. He has been working in schools of different districts of Nepal such as Lamjung, Palpa etc.