Integrating culture and human development into mathematics instruction through the use of stories

The session is based the journey of more than 10 years of work on a mathematical story on introducing fractions through measurement. I first focus on the purposes of the story and the roles that it can accomplish in the classroom. In addition to the mathematical learning that is made possible, the role of the story is to promote historical and cultural inclusion of the local learners. I reflect in particular on the South African journey with this research and hope to stimulate discussion about inclusion, instructional design and change.

Dr Pamela Vale

Pamela Vale is a senior researcher and numeracy project co-ordinator at the South African Numeracy Chair Project (Rhodes University). She taught school mathematics and worked as a mathematics lecturer at a vocational college before moving on to pursue a PhD focused on the teaching and learning of measurement. Since earning her PhD, she has been involved in pre- and in-service mathematics teacher education and professional development, mostly focused on the teaching and learning of fractions and measurement. This is also where her primary research interest lies. Her current work is focused on the adaptation and use of the Fractions as Measure instructional sequence in the resource-constrained South African classroom context, as well on the development of storybook resources to support fractions learning.

https://www.ru.ac.za/sanc/people/postdoctoralfellows/pamelavale/