Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Mathematics Through Creative and Body-Based Learning

Urban Aboriginal Schooling

Bibliographic Data

ID9730276
AuthorsLester-Irabinna Rigney (0000-0002-4756-2399, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, corresponding author), Robyne Garrett (0000-0002-9604-458X, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia), Megan Curry (University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia), Belinda Macgill (0000-0002-3486-6721, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia)
Year2020
Volume52
Issue8
Pages1159-1180
Publication date2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducation and Urban Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-1245 • E-ISSN: 1552-3535
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0013124519896861
OpenAlexW2998156692
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited32

Global neoliberal imperatives that numerically measure student success through standardized testing undermine the educational outcomes of students, in particular Indigenous students, and construct a seemingly fixed reality that avoids State responsibility to address structural inequality in Australia. Achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school students in mathematics have become an urgent international problem. Although evidence suggests that culturally responsive pedagogies (CRPs) improve student academic success for First Nations peoples in settler colonial countries such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, less prominent is a focus on how CRP is enacted and mobilized in Australian classrooms. Although some initiatives exist, this article explores how creative and body-based learning (CBL) strategies might be utilized to enact CRP. Using an ethnographic case study approach, we examined how two early career teachers serving Indigenous and ethnically diverse students implemented CBL to reengage students with mathematics. Findings suggest that the teachers were able to mobilize a number of CRP principles using CBL strategies to facilitate engagement in mathematics for urban Aboriginal students. Specifically, when teachers repositioned students as “competent” and designed embodied learning experiences that connected to their cultural backgrounds, students let go of their cautious learner histories and remade themselves as clever and competent

Construct (python library · Embodied cognition · Ethnography · Indigenous · Inequality · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Sociology · Structural inequality · Student engagement · Educational Environments and Student Outcomes · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Psychology · Science Education and Pedagogy

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