November 2007: National American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month

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American Indian Blankets

Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol exhibition installation negative of a blanket chest containing American Indian blankets. The top lid and front drawer are open.

Investigação etnomatemática em contextos indígenas: caminhos para a reorientação da prática pedagógica

From the investigation, analysis, discussion and pondering about the activities developed by the lndians from the Porteira hamlet, members of the Xerente community, in the Tocantins state, we developed an investigative and descriptive study about the reality of this people with the aim of helping in the conceptual formation and in the reorientation of the pedagogical practice of the local teachers. In this sense, the undertaken research involved the teachers, the main representatives and experts in that cultural tradition, in order to investigate how the everyday activities (agriculture, food handling, assets distribution among the community members, etc.) and the cultural tradition (log race, body painting, clan division, Xerente numeration, Indian myths and histories, etc.), may enable the contextualization of the mathematics teaching in the lndian School Srêmtôwê of this hamlet, under a more transversal and globalizing perspective of the local and school knowledge. We based this research in the sociocultural conceptions of knowledge generation proposed by D Ambrosio (1990; 2002); Vergani (2007); Oliveras (1996); Gerdes (1991; 2002); Bishop (1999) e Sebastiani Ferreira (1997; 2004). ln the process of this study we propose some viable ways so that the Indian teachers may reorganize their classroom knowledge and actions, based in the strengthening of their history and culture. The observation of some social practices and knowledge as well as of the Xerente traditions helped us to point some possibilities of projection of a didacticalpedagogical dimension of these activities and practices, in the development of the school mathematical knowledge in this community

Structuralism and the Applicability of Mathematics

In this paper I argue for the view that structuralism offers the best perspective for an acceptable account of the applicability of mathematics in the empirical sciences. Structuralism, as I understand it, is the view that mathematics is not the science of a particular type of objects, but of structural properties of arbitrary domains of entities, regardless of whether they are actually existing, merely presupposed or only intentionally intended.

Cardiac glycosides isolated from the Indian-snuff, Maquira sclerophylla Ducke

The hydroalcoholic extract of the powdered bark of the Indian-snuff Maquira sclerophylla Ducke was purified by column chromatography in silica-gel and the major cardenolide isolated from preparative TLC was identified by 1H-NMR, 1 2 C-NMR and IR analyses. The spectra showed that the active substance has strophanthidin as aglicone.

Mathematics teaching life histories in the study of teachers' perceptions of change

The aim of this paper is to discuss teachers' perceptions of change in their thought and/or practice over time and their perceptions of what kind of experiences or challenges might have influenced those changes. Two mathematics teaching life histories of Brazilian teachers are examined, considering a context of curriculum development in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Reflection on teachers' thought and practice and interest in their own development, including interest in their own learning of mathematics, seemed to be the most important internal aspects influencing change and development. Close support seemed to be the most important external aspect. The retrospective analysis put a good face on personal change and development. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

VOICES FROM THE SOUTH: DIALOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS AND COLLABORATION IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION

This chapter presents a collaborative experience between two neighbouring countries from South America: Argentina and Brazil. Our purpose is to share a model of international collaboration that we consider to be an alternative to the classical movement of early mathematical and scientific knowledge between East and West and between North and South. We start our chapter with a general discussion about the phenomenon of globalization considering some local examples. We characterize our collaboration exploring the tensions and difficulties we faced along our own professional development at the local as well as the international level. We describe the development of our prior collaborative work that established the foundation for our international collaboration portraying the local mathematics education communities. We refer to some balances that were created among our relationships, the expansion of our collaborative network, and how this particular collaboration allows us to contribute to the regional field and inform the international one. We discuss the way that the search for balance and symmetry, or at least a complementary asymmetry in our collaborative relationships, has led us to generate a genuine and equitable collaboration.

Phenomenological perspective on mathematics education

This is a philosophical essay on a phenomenological way to understand and to work out Mathematics Education. Its philosophical grounding is the Husserlian work, focusing on its key word "going to the things themselves" in order to keep us away from the theoretical educational truth, took as the unique one. We assume the attitude of being on the life-world with the students and Mathematics as a field of research and practice that show and express themselves through lived experiences and through language. We assume to be in search of understanding of education, learning and Mathematics, as we take care, consciously, of what we are doing and saying in the same movement of saying and doing it.