Ethnomathematics and Its Pedagogical Action in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Ethnomathematics school practices favor respect for, solidarity and cooperation with the other. It is thus associated with the pursuit of PEACE. The main goal of ethnomathematics is building up a civilization free of truculence, of arrogance, of intolerance, discrimination, inequity, bigotry, and hatred. These are basic questions that define philosophical and ideological postures. These postures are in the roots of a holistic theory of knowledge, looking into the generation, the individual and social organization, and the institutionalization, transmission and diffusion of knowledge, as studied in the Ethnomathematics Program. My concept of ethnomathematics is primeval: recognizing, in every corner of the planet, the different emergence of perceptions of space and time and the techniques of observing, comparing, classifying, ordering, measuring, quantifying and inferring and, as consequently, different styles of abstract thinking.