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Supporting indigenous students’ understanding of the numeration system of their first language

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Abstract

Results from a project conducted in Mexico are discussed, in which a group of 17 indigenous teachers analyzed the numeration systems of their first language. The main goal of the project is to develop resources that help teachers in supporting students’ understanding of the systems. In the first phase of the project, the central organizing ideas of 14 numeration systems were specified. Each system belonged to a different Mesoamerican language. Three aspects of the systems were identified that would have to be accounted for in instructional design. They include using 20 as a multiplicative base. Examples are presented of the instructional resources that indigenous teachers could use to help their students understand the quantitative rationales of the systems.

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Notes

  1. Peru’s indigenous population of more than 8,000,000 is the biggest in the Americas.

  2. Students for this program are recruited in regions throughout Mexico with a high presence of indigenous population.

  3. I am grateful to Linguist Soledad Pérez for supporting the research team in using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

  4. Of the 14 systems, Mazahua and Tarahumara use 10 as a multiplicative base. The others use 20.

  5. Tsotsil is a Mayan language, closely related to Tseltal and Cho’l, whose numeration system also follows a vigesimal possessiveness rationale.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was possible thanks to the work of the 17 indigenous teachers that participated in the research project. They are Adriana Roque Corona (Otomí), Belén Juárez López (Totonaco), Domingo Arcos Vázquez (Cho’l), Elodia Velasco Pacheco (Mixteco), Emma Candia Estrada (Tlapaneco), Flor Neyvis Hernández Mendoza (Chatino), Jorge Mendoza Cumplido (Southern Tepehuano), Judith Ibarra Bruno (Tlapaneco), Minerva Merino López (Mixteco), Nancy Martínez Ramírez (Náhuatl), Norma Filomena Martínez Jiménez (Mixe), Odelba Villegas López (Tarahumara), Reyna Isabel Santiz Gómez (Tseltal), Rogelio Ruiz Carrizosa (Mazateco), Silvia Benito Méndez (Mazahua), Vicente Hernández López (Triqui), and Yolanda Hernández Aguilar (Náhuatl). I am grateful to all of them. I am also grateful to the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (Mexico’s National Pedagogical University) for funding the project.

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  1. Área Académica Diversidad e Interculturalidad, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Carretera al Ajusco No. 24, Col. Héroes de Padierna, Del. Tlalpan, Mexico City, 14200, Mexico

    José Luis Cortina

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Correspondence to José Luis Cortina.

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Cortina, J.L. Supporting indigenous students’ understanding of the numeration system of their first language. Math Ed Res J 25, 23–42 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-012-0043-6

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