Culture, Worldview and Transformative Philosophy of Mathematics Education in Nepal: a Cultural-Philosophical Inquiry
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Science and Mathematics Education Centre Culture, Worldview and Transformative Philosophy of Mathematics Education in Nepal: A Cultural-Philosophical Inquiry Bal Chandra Luitel This Thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University of Technology July 2009 Declaration This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person or institution except where due acknowledgement has been made. (Trans: Telling truth is recommended, but more than that, tell those things which are in the broader interests of all. For me (i.e., Narada), that which is beneficial to the large community, is truth. - Mahabharata) To all known and unknown teachers, gurus, avatars, Buddhas, yogis, sages, philosophers and unnamed higher spirits (not in a particular order) who bestow knowledge and wisdoms on me in this life time. To my parents (father Hari Prasad Luitel and mother Late Pabitra Luitel) whose ideals of value-based living have been guiding my life along a valuable educational journey. To my brother Late Ram Chandra Luitel whose honesty, dedication and educative role inspired me to be a good teacher. To my wife, Sabita, whose care, warmth and continuous love and support has made my ‘seeking life’ exciting and rewarding. To my sons, Bijaya and Binaya, who have important roles to play in their future lives. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Associate Professor Peter Taylor whose collegial academic mentoring led me to such a multifaceted inquiry that enabled me to be a creative seeker of new knowledge rather than a reproducer of pre-existing knowledge. Peter’s comments and questions strengthened further my deeply-seated desire to chart unconventional pathways for making this research more real, lively and natural. My sincere thanks go to my co-supervisor Dr. Lily Settelmaier whose critical comments and questions on issues related to various contemporary issues arising from Eastern Wisdom Traditions, especially nondualism, integralism and . A special gratitude to my parents who made me able to see the world in a unique way that every creature should be treated with care, compassion and sympathy. Although I could not share this outcome of your education during your physical presence, I owe you so much Mother and feel that you are always with me! Many thanks to my parents-in-law, brothers, sisters, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, and other well wishers from my extended family for their continuous moral support in my studies. I am also thankful to my wife, Sabita for her enduring support and care, and to my sons, Bijaya and Binaya, for creating an interactive, lively and homely environment. My sincere thanks go to Curtin University of Technology for providing the Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (EIPRS) without which this research might have not been possible. A special thanks to all SMEC staff for their prompt academic and administrative support whenever sought. I am also indebted to my students and colleagues in Nepal for sending me relevant documents and information. Thanks to all known and unknown well-wishers, friends and colleagues who contributed to my research directly and indirectly! . iv ABSTRACT This thesis portrays my multifaceted and emergent inquiry into the protracted problem of culturally decontextualised mathematics education faced by students of Nepal, a culturally diverse country of south Asia with more than 90 language groups. I generated initial research questions on the basis of my history as a student of primary, secondary and university levels of education in Nepal, my Master’s research project, and my professional experiences as a teacher educator working in a university of Nepal between 2004 and 2006. Through an autobiographical excavation of my experiences of culturally decontextualised mathematics education, I came up with several emergent research questions, leading to six key themes of this inquiry: (i) hegemony of the unidimensional nature of mathematics as a body of pure knowledge, (ii) unhelpful dualisms in mathematics education, (iii) disempowering reductionisms in curricular and pedagogical aspects, (iv) narrowly conceived ‘logics’ that do not account for meaningful lifeworld-oriented thinking in mathematics teaching and learning, (v) uncritical attitudes towards the image of curriculum as a thing or object, and (vi) narrowly conceived notions of globalisation, foundationalism and mathematical language that give rise to a decontextualised mathematics teacher education program. With these research themes at my disposal my aim in this research was twofold. Primarily, I intended to explore, explain and interpret problems, issues and dilemmas arising from and embedded in the research questions. Such an epistemic activity of articulation was followed by envisioning, an act of imagining futures together with reflexivity, perspectival language and inclusive vision logics. In order to carry out both epistemic activities – articulating and envisioning – I employed a multi-paradigmatic research design space, taking on board mainly the paradigms of criticalism, postmodernism, interpretivism and integralism. The critical paradigm offered a critical outlook needed to identify the research problem, to reflect upon my experiences as a mathematics teacher and teacher educator, and to make my lifetime’s subjectivities transparent to readers, whereas the paradigm of postmodernism enabled me to construct multiple genres for cultivating different aspects of my experiences of culturally decontextualised mathematics education. The v paradigm of interpretivism enabled me to employ emergence as the hallmark of my inquiry, and the paradigm of integralism acted as an inclusive meta-theory of the multi-paradigmatic design space for portraying my vision of an inclusive mathematics education in Nepal. Within this multi-paradigmatic design space, I chose autoethnography and small p philosophical inquiry as my methodological referents. Autoethnography helped generate the research text of my cultural-professional contexts, whereas small p philosophical inquiry enabled me to generate new knowledge via a host of innovative epistemologies that have the goal of deepening understanding of normal educational practices by examining them critically, identifying underpinning assumptions, and reconstructing them through scholarly interpretations and envisioning. Visions cultivated through this research include: (i) an inclusive and multidimensional image of the nature of mathematics as an im/pure knowledge system, (ii) the metaphors of thirdspace and dissolution for conceiving an inclusive mathematics education, (iii) a multilogical perspective for morphing the hegemony of reductionism-inspired mathematics education, (iv) an inclusive image of mathematics curriculum as montage that provides a basis for incorporating different knowledge systems in mathematics education, and (v) perspectives of glocalisation, healthy scepticism and multilevel contextualisation for constructing an inclusive mathematics teacher education program. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................IV ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... V TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................... VII SECTION ZERO: SITUATING MYSELF: RESEARCH AGENDAS AND DESIGN .........................................1 CHAPTER ‐1: ALL THIS BEGAN FROM THERE —ARTICULATING MY RESEARCH PROBLEM...................................... 2 Encountering Foreign Mathematics ............................................................................................. 2 Transition to Meaningless Mathematics ...................................................................................... 5 My Master’s Research Project: A Stepping Stone......................................................................... 6 Post‐Master’s Professional Experience: Déjà vu and Emergent Issues......................................... 9 Reaching Out to the Field: Interacting with My Research Agendas............................................ 13 Chapter Summary....................................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 0: PLANNING THE JOURNEY: MEDIATING THE UN/MEDIATED........................................................... 24 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 24 Multi‐Paradigmatic Design Space............................................................................................... 24 Research Methodology............................................................................................................... 35 Imagining as Epistemic Technique.............................................................................................. 40 Theories as Referents.................................................................................................................. 46 Evidence as Cultural Construction .............................................................................................