The International Congress on Mathematical Education Welcomed Dr. Doolittle to its Recent Conference in Sydney, Australia

Being recognized internationally for your expertise in Mathematics is a significant achievement. Dr. Edward Doolittle, Associate Professor of Mathematics at FNUniv, recently attended the 15th Annual International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-15) in Sydney, Australia, from July 7 to 14, 2024. Dr. Doolittle’s invitation as one of the five selected Canadian lectures among 57 invitees, and 2500 delegates, is a notable recognition of his expertise on a global scale.

Throughout the conference, Edward immersed himself in its depths and connected with other Indigenous mathematics educators worldwide.

His lecture, Mathematics as a Spiritual Being, presented on July 13 as part of the Scientific Program of ICME-15,was a unique exploration of the balance between Indigenous mathematics and Indigenous spirituality. A condensed version of his talk will be published in the ICME-15 proceedings, with an extended version planned for submission to a journal.

For Indigenous learners of mathematics to be treated equitably and justly, there must be an Indigenous counterbalance to the massive global system of conventional mathematics; there must be a strong, flourishing Indigenous mathematics.  Central to the development of Indigenous mathematics must be Indigenous spirituality.  I propose we begin engaging with mathematics on the terms of a spiritual being, as vast and as old as the winds, the waters, and the earth.  We must learn where to find mathematics as a spiritual being, how we may once again come to know and engage with it, and how we may develop a positive relationship with it.  We know mathematics is as old as creation because we find it in our creation stories: first there was no one, then there was one, then there were two, and so on.  We know mathematics permeates our life because we find it in our art, our culture, our games, and our ceremonies.  But Indigenous peoples’ mathematics has been repressed and displaced by residential schooling and other colonial practices, just as Indigenous languages and spiritualities have been.  We must recover all that we can of our traditional mathematics, but more importantly, we must learn once again how to acquire new mathematical knowledge; in other words, we must rediscover our Indigenous research methods in mathematics.  We will explore some of the experiences and ideas that I have encountered while coming-to-know Indigenous mathematics and coming-to-know coming-to-know Indigenous mathematics.

Congratulations on another amazing opportunity to convey Indigenous Mathematics internationally and represent the First Nations University of Canada.

You can read more about the conference here.