Revealing and examining students’ cultural mathematical knowledge and thoughts through an ethnomathematics activity

Abstract

In this study, the mathematical knowledge and thoughts of middle school 7th grade students with different cultural values were revealed through an ethnomathematics activity originally designed by the researchers and were examined together with school mathematics. In the study the ethnographic case study research design was adopted. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that there were students who used the mathematical knowledge, thoughts and skills they had due to their cultural experiences, apart from their knowledge they acquired within the scope of school mathematics. There were students who could mathematically explain the information they used as well as students who were not aware of using mathematical knowledge.