Notes on Contributors
Dayle Anderson
is a senior lecturer in primary mathematics and science education at Victoria University of Wellington. She is a committed pre- and in-service primary teacher educator with experience working as a scientist and in primary teaching. Her research interests in mathematics and science education have a sociocultural and culturally responsive focus. Her research includes studies of primary science education, the use of rehearsal and coaching in initial mathematics teacher education, and a number of classroom based, collaborative projects. Current projects include research into primary teachers’ beliefs about science, and participatory action research into the use of drama in developing children’s epistemological and substantive science understanding. As well as acting as a reviewer and consultant for the New Zealand Ministry of Education and other organisations, Dayle has written primary teaching resources and textbook chapters for tertiary teaching students in both mathematics and science.
Dora Andrew-Ihrke
has been a bilingual aid, classroom teacher, and program coordinator of bilingual/bicultural education at Dillingham City Schools. Her teaching was recognized in Alaska and nationally: 1985 a recipient of Dillingham City Schools’ Excellence in Teaching, 1990 a Milken Educator Award and Alaska Teacher of the Year, and a 2001 recipient of the Alaska Federation of Natives education award. She is currently a faculty member at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Education in the Math in a Cultural Context (MCC) program. From childhood on she has been learning from and subsequently working with Yup’ik elders. During the past years through the MCC program, she has been sharing the lessons she learned from her mother and other elders and how these lessons apply to teaching school mathematics. From her mother, she learned a powerful “folding algorithm” which is foundational to MCC’s new approach to teaching mathematics. She is also a co-author to journal articles and for some of the published MCC modules. She teaches qaspeq (dress, literally a covering) making class in Anchorage.
Jo-ann Archibald Q’um Q’um Xiiem
from the Stó:lō and St’at’imc First Nations in British Columbia, Canada, is Professor Emeritus in the Educational Studies Department at the Faculty of Education, University of British Columba (UBC). She was the former Associate Dean Indigenous Education and the Director of UBC’s Indigenous Teacher Education Program (NITEP). She received a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree from the University of British Columbia, a Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from Simon Fraser University. Over a 45-year educational career, Jo-ann has been a school teacher, curriculum developer, researcher, university administrator and professor. Jo-ann’s scholarship relates to Indigenous knowledge systems, storywork/oral tradition, transformative education at all levels, Indigenous educational history, teacher and graduate education, and Indigenous methodologies. From 1992–2018, Jo-ann edited an annual theme issue of the Canada Journal of Native Education.
Maria Jose Athie Martinez
is a current PhD student in Curriculum Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is a mixed race Mexican mestiza. She has worked alongside Indigenous people mostly in her home country, Mexico. Her working area is finding pathways to bring in dialogue, respect and dignity, Indigenous Knowledge and Western Knowledge in a curriculum. She has also worked on training teachers on continuing education courses trying to make culturally and environmental responsive curriculum mostly in Indigenous schools. She has worked in all educational levels, but mostly in higher education, in private and public Universities in Mexico. For her Master’s thesis, also at UBC, Vancouver, Canada, she worked developing math lessons from K-12 to graduate studies, based on a tipi experiential story.
Robin Averill
is Associate Dean (Teacher Education) at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Robin’s research interests focus on enhancing equity of access to mathematics achievement. Projects include investigations into culturally responsive classroom and teacher education practices, particularly in relation to New Zealand’s Indigenous learners, using coaching to promote ambitious mathematics teaching, and effectiveness of national professional development projects. Robin has published widely on the teaching and learning of elementary, secondary, and middle school mathematics and statistics in articles, edited books, and has written a range of resources for teaching. Robin is a member of MERGA (Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia) and is the New Zealand representative on ICMI (International Commission on Mathematical Instruction).
Trevor Bills
comes from a background of teaching and middle management. He is currently employed at Massey University, New Zealand as a mentor to teachers in the Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities within a wide range of diverse schools in high poverty schools across New Zealand. The focus of Trevor’s research interests includes culturally responsive mathematics teaching and learning, the development of mathematical rich and culturally appropriate tasks, mathematical inquiry classrooms, ethnomathematics, critical mathematics, and the relationship between education, social change, equity and social justice.
Beatriz Aguon Camacho
is currently employed as a school guidance counselor with the Guam Department of Education. She works at Southern High School in Santa Rita. In addition to her role as a School Guidance Counselor, Ms. Camacho is actively involved in mathematic curriculum for the district as well as holding a management position with Asmuyao, a local community school. Ms. Camacho holds an M.A. in School Guidance and Counselling from the University of Guam and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of Portland in Oregon. Her doctoral research focuses on teachers as they go through the process of developing Service Learning projects. Ms. Camacho has several accomplishments, one being she was the recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Award for the U.S. Territories in 2011. Her work with Project MACIMISE (Mathematics and Culture In Micronesia: Integrating Societal Experiences) and with the Macimisers has made her appreciate and value connections with mathematics, culture, and community that allow for making sense of information and lead to a deeper understanding and knowledge base.
A. J. (Sandy) Dawson
Professor Emeritus, was a faculty member at the University of Hawaii Mānoa College of Education in the Department of Curriculum Studies and with the Institute of Teacher Education. His chapter is based on the work that he began and led through the Mathematics and Culture in Micronesia: Integrating Societal Experiences (MACIMISE) collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation. Through this project Dr. Dawson sought to improve elementary school mathematics education in eight Micronesian Island groups by drawing upon mathematical practices in Island communities everyday and cultural experiences. The author of many mathematics education and mathematics teacher education books and articles, Dr. Dawson’s contributions to the field are felt both internationally and locally.
Dwayne Donald
is a descendent of the amiskwaciwiyiniwak and the Papaschase Cree and is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. His work focuses on ways in which Cree and Blackfoot wisdom and sacred ecologies can enhance understandings of curriculum and pedagogy.
Herewini Easton
previously lecturing at Victoria University of Wellington, has continued to develop his aroha for Māori education through a range of tertiary and community institutions and initiatives. Herewini was Kaiārahi (Programme Manager) and kaiako (lecturer) for Te Korowai Akonga-Bachelor of Teaching (Primary), Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and an Academic Development Lecturer for Maia Maori Development Centre, Unitec Institute of Technology, Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka. During this time he was also involved with the National Centre of Literacy and Numeracy for Adults at Waikato University. Herewini is currently a Māori Academic Equity Lead at Auckland University of Technology, a Kaitautoko Māori at Te Pataka Korero Auckland Central Library, and an Advocate Māaori at Auckland Theatre.
Tauvela Fale
occupies the position of Director of Adult Education, Literacy and Extended Learning at the American Samoa Community College. He is also adjunct faculty for the teacher education program at ASCC. He obtained a BEd in elementary education University of Hawai’i Mānoa, and an MEd with an emphasis on mathematics from University of Hawaii at Mānoa. As a member of the MACIMISE, his doctoral research focus has been the design and implementation of units for teaching mathematics at the elementary level using indigenous practice. Tauvela Fale continues to pursue his commitment to improving students’ mathematical knowledge on their island, through working with the teacher education program to instil within prospective teachers the knowledge of how to teach mathematics using cultural connections especially for English language learners. He also works within the larger community through partnerships with the private sector and courses offered to adults in the work place for improvement of mathematics and language skill.
Amanda Fritzlan
is a doctoral student in the Curriculum Studies program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Previously, she taught for over ten years in local public schools at the middle school level. Her Master’s of Education research focused on teaching Aboriginal art as a non-Aboriginal person as well as student-centred museum experiences. Her current research centres around pedagogies in culturally diverse urban classrooms. She is particularly interested in issues of reconciliation, land, and materiality in culturally responsive mathematics education.
Florence Glanfield
is Vice-Provost (Indigenous Programming & Research) and Professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta. Florence is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and has had the honour of working with rural and urban Indigenous communities in Canada and internationally. Florence’s research interests emerge in the interaction among mathematics teacher education, teacher education, relational inquiries, Indigenous perspectives and complexity science. Florence is a recipient of the Iris Carl Leadership and Equity Award from TODOS: Mathematics for ALL (2014) and the Kay Gilliland Equity Lecture Award from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (2017).
Jodie Hunter
is a mathematics education researcher of Cook Island/Pakeha descent within the Institute of Education at Massey University. She began her career as a primary teacher in New Zealand before working as a Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. She completed her doctorate shortly after returning to New Zealand to work at Massey University. Recently Jodie has been involved in a large-scale project funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Education which focuses on developing culturally-responsive teaching to address under-achievement in mathematics for Pasifika and Māori students at low socio-economic schools.
Roberta Hunter
is currently an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education in the Institute of Education at Massey University. Over the past 15 years she has actively engaged in research and professional development projects which support teachers to develop equity focused culturally responsive mathematics pedagogy particularly with Pāsifika and Māori students and other diverse students in high poverty areas in New Zealand. The focus of her research and practice is on honouring students’ culture and language, so that they build positive cultural and mathematical identities. She works with teachers to draw on student values and cultural background to make mathematics real and meaningful but also to engage their participation in mathematical reasoning and communication. Other research interests include the development of mathematical practices within communities of mathematical inquiry.
Newell Johnson
is from Eskasoni First Nation. Her education background is diverse: she has a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Education, Masters in Special Education, and Masters in Mathematics. Johnson began her teaching career as a high school science teacher in 1999 and gradually became a high school math teacher. She was also a vice principal for six years before becoming a full-time principal in the last four years. She is a fluent Mi’kmaq speaker (English is her second language) and enjoys learning about her Mi’kmaq culture. Johnson takes pride in her culture, which she tries to instil in her students. It is because of her wonderful, caring, compassionate and understanding staff at Chief Allison Bernard Memorial High School (formerly known as Eskasoni High School) that they are able to provide a culturally rich and academically challenging curriculum.
Robyn Jorgensen (Zevenbergen)
is Professor of Education: Equity and Pedagogy at the University of Canberra. Spanning nearly three decades, her work has focused on issues of equity and access for marginalized learners. In particular, her work has focused on issues of social class, rurality and Indigenous students as these are the cohorts of students most at risk of failing school mathematics. She is the leader on a number of large research grants and is currently completing a national study on successful numeracy practices in Remote Indigenous contexts (from which the chapter herein is drawn from). She employs a socially-critical lens, often using the work of Bourdieu, in her work and seeks to explore the practices to contribute to, or address, the marginalization of particular groups of students.
Julie Kaomea
PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies at the University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa. She has worked and researched collaboratively in a number of Hawaiian educational settings, including the initial preparation and professional development of elementary educators who are committed to teaching in predominantly Native Hawaiian school communities.
Jerry Lipka
during the past 35 years, has had the privilege and opportunity to work with Yup’ik teachers and elders in Alaska as a faculty member at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Education. He has published journal articles that reflect an ethnographically-oriented approach. These publications include Yup’ik pedagogy, qualitative case studies of teachers implementing Math in a Cultural Context curriculum materials, and quantitative efficacy studies. More recently, he and his colleagues have become aware of the elegance and power of a few fundamental Yup’ik concepts, measuring as comparing and halving, as a way to build an alternative mathematical learning trajectory. This developing framework is the foundation for our new elementary school curriculum and professional development work as well as working internationally with Indigenous Knowledge holders in Greenland, in the Carolinian Islands, and Kamchatka.
Lisa Lunney Borden
is an Associate Professor of mathematics education at St. Francis Xavier University in Canada and currently holds the John Jerome Paul Chair researching Equity in Mathematics. Having taught 7–12 mathematics in a Mi’kmaw community, she credits her students and the community for helping her to think differently about mathematics teaching and learning. She is committed to research that focuses on decolonizing mathematics education through culturally based practices and experiences that are rooted in Aboriginal languages and knowledge systems. Lisa is equally committed to mathematics outreach through programs such as Show Me Your Math that was developed with David Wagner, Newell Johnson, and a team of teachers from Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey schools. This program invites Indigenous youth to find the mathematical reasoning inherent in their own community context. Lisa is a sought-after speaker on Indigenous mathematics education, working with mathematics educators across Canada as well as internationally.
Dora Borja Miura
as a mathematics teacher at Saipan Southern High School in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), promotes building community and relationships in the classroom for ongoing student and teacher growth. In 2015, she received the US National Science Foundation Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. She was named teacher of the year by CNMI Public School System in the same year. Dr. Miura received a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University as well as a master’s degree and a doctorate degree in education as a Macimiser from University of Hawaii at Mānoa. She has served the mathematics education community as a mentor for other public school mathematics educators in CNMI and as an administrator for CNMI Mathcourt. She has worked for the CNMI PSS as an elementary school teacher, a distant education teacher, and secondary school teacher of advanced algebra and geometry. She has also been employed as an adjunct instructor at North Marianas College. Her professional aims include having all students in the Commonwealth appreciate mathematics and sharing her research on relationship between mathematics and culture.
Sharon Nelson-Barber
directs Culture and Language in Education at WestEd. Her research centers on understanding how the sociocultural contexts in which students live influence the ways in which they make sense of schooling in mathematics and science. She also focuses on understanding how aspects of cultural knowledge can become visible in assessment and evaluation to ensure that schooling is equitable for all students. She is co-founder of POLARIS (Pacific/Polar Opportunities to Learn, Advance and Research Indigenous Systems), a research and development network that fosters healthy communities in healthy environments; encourages social and educational transformation; and brings a uniquely Indigenous world view to new frontiers of knowledge. Her work spans the lower 48 states, Alaska, Micronesia, and many areas of Polynesia. She earned a doctorate in human development from Harvard University, and completed postdoctoral work at Stanford University as a Spencer Fellow.
Cynthia Nicol
is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the UBC Faculty of Education and the David F. Robitialle Professor in Mathematics and Science Education. She lived and taught on Haida Gwaii in Canada’s Pacific North coast before moving to Vancouver to pursue her doctoral studies. With teachers and communities she is exploring new ways of making mathematics responsive to all learners by connecting math, community and culture, emphasizing place and community-based education, and exploring social justice issues through mathematics. Her current projects focus on researching ways to support teachers interested in more culturally responsive teaching practices. This includes practices to better understand Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships. This also includes working with teachers in the Dadaab refugee camp, Northeast Kenya, to better understand what it means to live, learn and teach in Dadaab the largest protracted refugee camp in the world. As Principal Investigator of this project she is committed to working across cultures and contexts to better understand and improve opportunities for ongoing teacher learning in some of the world’s most challenging conditions.
Gladys Sterenberg
is a Professor in the Department of Education at Mount Royal University, Canada. Her program of research is focused on relational ethics and can be described as encompassing three interrelated research interests: mathematics education, Indigenous ways of knowing, and overlapping communities of practice within teacher education. She taught K-12 for fifteen years before joining the academy.
Marama Taiwhati
is a former lecturer and advisor to kura/schools from Victoria University of Wellington. With experience teaching in Māori immersion schools, Marama contributed as advisor and investigator within a range of research projects, including evaluations of national professional development projects aimed at responsiveness to Māori learners.
Pania Te Maro
Ko Hikurangi te Maunga, Ko Waiapu te Awa, Ko Ngāti Porou te Iwi, Ko te Whānau a Pōkai te Hapū, Ko Te Kapa o Hineauta te Tūrangawaewae, Ko Pōkai te Marae, Ko Pōhatu te Wharekai. Tēnā rā tātou. A senior lecturer/researcher in education previously at Victoria University of Wellington and now at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, Pania Te Maro lectures in mathematics/pāngarau, literacy and the general curriculum for Early Childhood Educators through to students who may teach in Wharekura/Māori immersion secondary schools. Pania’s research focuses on the development of self-determined curriculum for Māori immersion educational settings in relation to pāngarau (mathematics). Projects include evaluations related to Māori junior and senior literacy, Te Poutama Tau curriculum implementation, and an aromatawai/assessment framework for Māori immersion schools. Retention of beginning Māori teachers in Māori schools and identifying success factors for adult students gaining high literacy achievement have been further research projects.
Jennifer S. Thom
is an Associate Professor of mathematics education and curriculum studies at the University of Victoria. Her work, which is rooted in ecological thinking, seeks to understand the systemic nature of knowing as well as the co-specifying manners in which agents and their environments bring forth effects and potentials. Jennifer’s research interests include embodied cognition, collective understanding, and eco-culturally responsive curricula, all of which aim to engage a deeper sense of what it means to teach and learn.
David Wagner
is Associate Dean (Graduate Programs) in the Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick. His interest in human interaction in mathematics and mathematics learning inspires his research, including: identifying positioning structures in mathematics classrooms by analyzing language practice, ethnomathematical conversations in Aboriginal communities, and working with teachers to interrogate authority structures in their classrooms. He serves as associate editor of Educational Studies in Mathematics, and on the Nonkilling Science and Technology Research Committee, the International Committee of Mathematics Education and Society, and the editorial board of Mathematics Education Research Journal. His wide ranging international projects include work with UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development to promote peace, sustainable development and global citizenship in school mathematics curricula. He has taught grades 7-12 mathematics in Canada and Swaziland.
Eva Evelyn Yanez
is a former Yup’ik teacher, bilingual coordinator, and a State of Alaska recognized bilingual educator. She has been involved in education for over 30 years. She is a life-long learner of traditional Yup’ik stories as well as other cultural activities. She has extensive experience working with Yup’ik Elders from collecting, recording, transcribing and translating traditional Yup’ik stories to retelling stories for publication. In professional development settings, she shares the cultural practice of storyknifing and dance, and connects aspects of these cultural activities to foundational mathematical concepts. She is also a co-author for some of the modules in the Math in a Cultural Context series. More recently, she has worked with community members to revitalize the Yup’ik language.
Joanne Yovanovich
was born and raised in the Ts’aahl Eagle Clan of Skidegate on Haida Gwaii, Her Haida name is Taanud Jaad. She has worked with School District #50 since 1995, beginning as the Full Day Kindergarten teacher and Vice Principal then becoming Principal of Sk’aadgaa Naay Elementary School. Currently she has the position of Principal of Aboriginal Education in Haida Gwaii School District. She is rooted in her community and the place of Haida Gwaii, She strives to connect the worlds of cultural and school knowledge. She is deeply committed to making a difference in student success rates on Haida Gwaii. She believes that culturally responsive education is a key to student success. Culturally responsive education can be transformative, inspiring and validating for students and staff that embrace and practice the philosophy.