Abstract
In this straightforwardly written ethnomathematical report of geographically and socio-culturally situated mathematical practices—patterning of artefacts and social relations among the Nalik of New Ireland—Were houses a subtle critique of the field of ethnomathematics (EM). However, his critique is rendered less potent by not having demonstrated an attention to the conversational patterns in the recent EM literature. As a reader somewhat familiar with a significant portion of the “basic” literature and the ongoing debates in the field (Khan 2008), I appreciated, however, the author pointing me to texts and manuscripts that I had not encountered. In the hope that this commentary and Were’s chapter be of utility to readers I first offer an outline of some complementary patterns in the more recent (ethno)mathematics education literature before returning to the seed that lies dormant within Were’s paper, which is to be found via a consideration of his key motif—pattern(ing).
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Notes
- 1.
The acronym WEIRD is used by Henrich et al. (2010) to describe the extreme exceptionality of the Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic populations which make up the majority of samples in psychology. They are clear to note that they, “do not intend any negative connotations or moral judgments by the acronym” (p. 83).
- 2.
I know relatively little about the dynamics of the Papua New Guinea educational situation, and what I do know is from having read a small section of the literature published in English.
- 3.
“…the cohesion of social systems depends on the maintenance of patterns of behavior; and advances in civilization depend on the fortunate modification of such behavior patterns. Thus the infusion of pattern into natural occurrences, and the stability of such patterns, and the modification of such patterns, is the necessary condition for the realization of the Good… . Mathematics is the most powerful technique for the understanding of pattern and for the analysis of the relationships of patterns” (Whitehead 1941/1951, pp. 677–678)
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Khan, S.K. (2012). Commentary on the Chapter by Graeme Were, “From the Known to the Unknown: Pattern, Mathematics and Learning in Papua New Guinea”. In: Forgasz, H., Rivera, F. (eds) Towards Equity in Mathematics Education. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27702-3_40
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