Moments to Movements: Exploring Mathematics Decolonization in Secondary Schools
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Authors
McGillivray, Claire
Date
2025-09-19
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Decolonization , Mathematics Education
Alternative Title
Abstract
In this paper, I seek to understand and describe the current state of decolonization in secondary mathematics education. This process unfolded through investigating Indigenous and Western ways of understanding and teaching mathematics and the ongoing problem of colonialism in the mathematics classroom in a literature review, as well as through conducting semi-structured interviews with five mathematics teachers and one English teacher. The interviews captured the teachers’ perceptions, experiences, and concerns about decolonization in and outside of their classrooms. All six teachers supported decolonization, but only four of the six teachers believed that mathematics decolonization is possible. The teachers identified potentially decolonial actions, such as forming strong working relationships with students, celebrating BIPOC excellence in mathematics, and creating collaborative decolonial maths tasks. Some challenges and barriers to this work include a lack time, funding, and decolonial or multicultural knowledge, and the difficulty of navigating the incongruences between Indigenous and Western mathematics. In this offering, I hope to both draw attention to and help to fill this gap in the vast cross-section of the fields of mathematics, education, and decolonization.