Doing mathematics with Roma: Dialogue between dialogic learning and ethnomathematics

Abstract

Roma have been excluded from education over the years. Their cultural heritage mediates their ways to learn and use mathematics within the classroom. Drawing on the dialogue between Dialogic Learning and Ethnomathematics open the possibility to incorporate Roma's voices to the learning process. Interactive groups become spaces for participants to share their own cultural strategies to solve mathematical tasks. Egalitarian dialogue, cultural intelligence, and equality of differences are universal principles that make possible for all participants in the classroom to draw on their own ways to do mathematics, as stated by the Ethnomathematics approach. The challenge for the near future is to identify these universals to design inclusive practices in mathematics education.