New cohort of teachers hone skills through UH ethnomathematics program

The sixth cohort of the world’s first graduate certificate in ethnomathematics education, comprising teachers from across Hawaiʻi and the US continent, recently completed a week of educational immersion activities.

They join more than 100 undergraduate STEM and pre-service educators and more than 200 P–20 public, public charter, and private school educators who are part of the UH ethnomathematics alumni network. This network map also includes partners and supporters, many of whom are based outside the US.

The latest group of teachers to participate in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s first-in-the-world ethnomathematics academic program recently did a session in a taro loʻi. Teachers from across Hawaiʻi and the US did service learning at Hoʻokuaʻāina cultural center in Kailua and related their experiences to math.

“So for being from Lahaina, I really wanted to look for opportunities that would be learning opportunities that would be more meaningful and impactful for my students. And so being part of this program and being able to participate in different activities, I have seen how I can take that and apply that to my own teaching and my own classroom,” Michelle Brummel, teacher, Lahainaluna High School.

Brummel and her fellow teachers join more than 100 undergraduate STEM and pre-service educators and more than 200 P–20 educators who are part of the UH’s global ethnomathematics network.

“Our students found different connections to their land or their homes or their schools or communities,” said Linda Furuto, a UH Mānoa professor. “And then we had conversations when we met the next time about how kalo hydrophobicity and angles of elevation and declination and geometry and algebra were connected to our natural environment.”

Ethnomathematics uses real-world examples and local surroundings to prepare high-quality primary and secondary teachers as leaders through practical application of teaching and learning mathematics that bridges Indigenous wisdom and 21st century skills to classrooms and communities. 

“I think I’ve seen this model of learning about our students and sharing what we know and letting them share what they know so that they can see themselves in the math,” said Mary Mares, a high school STEM teacher from Colorado.

In 2018, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education began offering the first ethnomathematics graduate certificate and became the first academic program in ethnomathematics in the world. Later that year, the Hawaiʻi Teacher Standards Board approved ethnomathematics as a field of licensure.

There are now ethnomathematics alumni from every Hawaiʻi Department of Education complex and district across the state.