Ethnomathematics: Art, Culture and Social Justice

To address the continuing need to engage students with how mathematics can contribute to issues of equity versus equality, civil rights, social justice, and the historical contributions to mathematics from cultures around the world, ethnomathematics educators have developed numerous educational materials. Activities from a recent course which applied mathematics such as fractals, tessellations, cellular automata, groups, symmetries, graph theory, and game theory will be illustrated with various student projects. I argue that by engaging students in “Brave Spaces” (see our Numeracy article) with mathematical tools and data, students will tackle difficult complex issues with minimal professorial facilitation.