Singing, and specifically, the singing of waiata (a song or chant related to the Maori world), is a useful and important mathematics classroom practice in any culture. Focussing on teachers in Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu New Zealand, we suggest waiata is one step teachers can take towards honouring their obligations under Te Tiriti partnership. We…

As part of a much larger study where spatial reasoning is the focus, this paper draws on the language aspects of this strand of the curriculum. The quarantined part of the project discussed in this presentation is based in remote Indigenous schools. We draw on the challenges of the concept of symmetry and where the language of instruction (and…

The aims of a study to teach mathematics in Mawng, an Australian Indigenous language, shifted from providing a foundation to enhance transferral to English to involving a language maintenance aspect. The study took place in a multilingual community. The roles of multiple Indigenous languages in a mathematics lesson are reported on. It is argued…

This paper presents an account of a new place-based education initiative using both the mathematical construct of hypothetical learning trajectory and the 3D printing technology or Projection Augmented Landscape Models (PALM), as a tool for learning. The goal of the pilot study is to create bridges between Aboriginal and Western ways of knowing…

Recent research has supported and extended earlier research on how and for how long Indigenous people of Australasia have been counting. This history values the long history of Indigenous knowledge and re-writes the limited and sometimes false history that many Australian teachers accept and teach about number systems. The current views on the…

This study investigated the implementation of a primary mathematics initiative in an Australian Indigenous community school designed to improve students' mathematical proficiency. Throughout the 7-month initiative, four classes ranging from Year 2 to Year 6 participated in the initiative. Findings indicated an increase in mathematics achievement…

This paper describes the genesis of YuMi Deadly Maths, a school change process that has been used in over 200 schools to develop mathematics teaching and learning to improve students' employment and life chances. The paper discusses the YuMi Deadly Maths approach to mathematics content and pedagogy, implemented through a process of PD and school…

For Indigenous students in minority education contexts, it is important that teachers have strategies to combine both cultural knowledge and mathematical knowledge in appropriate ways. This paper presents the results from analysing preservice teachers' statistical enquiry assignment linked to a cultural context, in a Maori-medium teacher education…

This paper describes the pedagogical framework used by YuMi Deadly Maths, a school change process used to improve mathematics teaching and thus enhance employment and life chances for socially disadvantaged students. The framework, called the RAMR cycle, is capable of being used by mathematics teachers for planning and delivering lessons and units…

This paper presents a hypothesised learning trajectory for a Year 3 Indigenous student en route to generalising growing patterns. The trajectory emerged from data collected across a teaching experiment (students n = 18; including a pre-test and three 45-minute mathematics lessons) and clinical interviews (n = 3). A case study of one student is…

This paper is theoretical in orientation and explores the limitations of the current field of mathematics education which has been dominated by social theories of learning. It is proposed that the field is approaching its limits for these theories and there is a need for shift that moves from the idiosyncratic possibilities of subjective meaning…

In Maori medium schools, research that investigates children's mathematical computation with number and connections they might make to mathematical ideas in other strands is limited. This paper seeks to share ideas elicited in a task-based observation and interview with one child about the number ideas she utilises to solve a problem requiring…

The aim of this study was to determine the role of semiotics in assisting young Indigenous students to engage with and identify the general structure of growing patterns. The theoretical perspective of semiotics underpinned the study. Data are drawn from two Year 3 students, including analysis of pretest questions and two conjecture-driven…

Forty-seven Aboriginal students in the Kimberley were interviewed in English and Kimberley Kriol to investigate their understanding of "everyday" words used within mathematics classrooms. The results showed that some of the Kindergarten and pre-primary students had difficulty with both the Kriol and English words, indicating they need to…

In this paper we report trends over time of performance of non-Indigenous and Indigenous students on the Numeracy component of the NAPLAN tests. Possible links between student performance on the NAPLAN Numeracy test and the four components--Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Grammar--of the NAPLAN Literacy test were also explored. While the…