Critiquing situatedness: An integrated approach to improving a researcher’s practice

This paper focuses on some methodological aspects of an ongoing Master's degree project that builds upon the researcher's autobiographical experiences of ethnographic moments. Informed by the recent construct of teacher education that research should improve educative practices of the researcher, the methodological edifice embodies alternative and multiple approaches to self study research by using multiple genres of writing - narrative, fictional storied, poetic and reflective representations - in order to represent the researcher's experiences as a mathematics student, teacher and teacher eductor in Nepal. Blending van Manen's criteria of representing texts - orientation, strength, richness, and depth - for invoking readers with pedagogical thoughtfulness within auto-ethnographic texts that critique the situatedness of the researcher, the bricolage metaphor is central to the inquiry

De-frosting and re-frosting the ideology of pure mathematics: An infusion of Eastern-Western perspectives on conceptualising a socially just mathematics education

Adopting a method of writing as inquiry, the paper deconstructs the overriding image of mathematics as a body of pure knowledge, thereby constructing an integral perspective of a socially just mathematics education in Nepal, a south Asian nation that is spiritually and historically rich and culturally and linguistically diverse. Combining a bricolage of storied, interpretive, reflective and poetic genres and an Integral philosophy, we envision a culturally contextualized mathematics education that is inclusive of Nepalese cultural, linguistic and spiritual diversities. This socially just mathematics education would enable Nepalese learners to: (a) co-generate mathematics from their cultural contexts; (b) connect their lived cultural experiences with formal mathematics and vice versa; (c) take up social, cultural and situated inquiry approaches to learning mathematics; and (d) solve real world problems by using different forms of mathematics

Overcoming culturally dislocated curricula in a transitional society: An autoethnographic journey towards pragmatic wisdom

In this paper we present part of an autoethnographic inquiry into the prospective role of cultural values and beliefs in rendering Nepali school mathematics more culturally inclusive. The research was conducted by the first author, a Nepali mathematics teacher educator, during postgraduate research in an Australian university. The research enabled him to develop practical curriculum wisdom as a culture worker pursuing development of a culturally contextualized mathematics curriculum for Nepal. The second author, a transformative teacher educator, served as research mentor and co-writer. The sub-theme of the paper is the value of autoethnographic research as a means of transformative professional development for non-Western educators conducting postgraduate culture studies research without having direct access to their home country

Defrosting and re-frosting the ideology of pure mathematics: An infusion of eastern-western perspectives on conceptualising a socially just mathematics education

Adopting a method of writing as inquiry, the paper deconstructs the overriding image of mathematics as a body of pure knowledge, thereby constructing an integral perspective of a socially just mathematics education in Nepal, a south Asian nation that is spiritually and historically rich and culturally and linguistically diverse. Combining a bricolage of storied, interpretive, reflective and poetic genres and an Integral philosophy, we envision a culturally contextualized mathematics education that is inclusive of Nepalese cultural, linguistic and spiritual diversities. This socially just mathematics education would enable Nepalese learners to: (a) co-generate mathematics from their cultural contexts; (b) connect their lived cultural experiences with formal mathematics and vice versa; (c) take up social, cultural and situated inquiry approaches to learning mathematics; and (d) solve real world problems by using different forms of mathematics

Autoethnography: A Method of Research and Teaching for Transformative Education

This paper discusses the thesis that autoethnography as tool in research provides the researcher to examine his or her pedagogical and research practices from his or lived evocative experiences. The essence of this paper is to seek the possibilities of linking autoethnography as a method of inquiry that catalyses the transformative pedagogy positively in mathematics education. It is an outcome of my dissertation of Masters of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Education. I highlights the importance of autoethnography in research in a way that permits researchers to apply flexible modes of inquiry from their life experiences with motives of change to take place in educational institutions and classroom practices

Research with multiple epistemic metaphors: Searching for alternatives in science education research

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Globalization, ecological consciousness and curriculum as montage: A vision for culturally contextualized mathematics education

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Mathematics education research as/for teacher professional development: Transforming the heart, mind and soul of mathematics education

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Transformative research as/for science teacher education

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The shanai, the pseudosphere and other imaginings: envisioning culturally contextualised mathematics education

Adopting a self-conscious form of co-generative writing and employing a bricolage of visual images and literary genres we draw on a recent critical auto/ethnographic inquiry to engage our readers in pedagogical thoughtfulness about the problem of culturally decontextualised mathematics education in Nepal, a country rich in cultural and linguistic diversity. Combining transformative, critical mathematics and ethnomathematical perspectives we develop a critical cultural perspective on the need for a culturally contextualized mathematics education that enables Nepalese students to develop (rather than abandon) their cultural capital. We illustrate this perspective by means of an ethnodrama which portrays a pre-service teacher’s point of view of the universalist pedagogy of Dr. Euclid, a semi-fictive professor of undergraduate mathematics. We deconstruct the naivety of this conventional Western mathematics pedagogy arguing that it fails to incorporate salient aspects of Nepali culture. Subsequently we employ metaphorical imagining to envision a culturally inclusive mathematics education for enabling Nepalese teachers to (i) excavate multiple mathematical knowledge systems embedded in the daily practices of rural and remote villages across the country, and (ii) develop contextualized pedagogical perspectives to serve the diverse interests and aspirations of Nepali school children