Ethnomathematics as a teaching and research method: meaning mathematical concepts in Numerical Calculus disciplines

Abstract

This article presents the analysis of a teaching proposal carried out with Numerical Calculus students at a private university in the south of the country. It aims to understand the implications of this proposal in Higher Education classrooms as a means of recognizing different language games for the meaning of mathematical concepts developed in these classes. Methodologically, it presents a teaching proposal in which students developed a research work about the different ways of using and different language games of concepts studied in the discipline of Numerical Calculus in their respective graduation courses. The data collected during the oral and written presentation of the research by the students were analyzed using a Foucauldian genealogical analysis. It shows that Ethnomathematics as a research and teaching method in the classroom creates conditions for students, through recognition of the different uses of mathematical concepts and their respective language games, to broaden their understanding of these concepts. Added to this, when students recognize similarities and dissimilarities in the language games present in practices developed within the scope of their future profession, they are able to give meaning to the studied concepts and perceive their applicability.