Strong relationships established between schools and communities can improve the mathematical learning outcomes for Aboriginal students. The 2005-2006 Building Community Capacity project sought to identify key aspects of meaningful engagement between schools and communities focusing on the development and implementation of contextualised, relevant and connected mathematics curriculum and appropriate teaching and learning strategies to enhance Aboriginal students’ mathematics outcomes. Using case study methodology within two school sites in New South Wales, the paper identifies critical elements of community engagement and provides underlying principles, which other communities might consider in their own community capacity building.
This paper focuses on the social justice imperative to bring about improved mathematical learning outcomes for Aboriginal students. It provides comment whereby mathematics educators can appreciate more fully the context in which many Aboriginal students learn mathematics. Further, the paper reports on five mathematics education case study projects initiated by educational systems working collaboratively with Aboriginal communities. It examines each program using seven constructs: social justice; empowerment; engagement; reconciliation; self-determination; connectedness; and relevance. As an outcome, possible roles and responsibilities of mathematics educators for working collaboratively with Aboriginal communities to provide appropriate mathematics pedagogy for Aboriginal students are identified.
Berzelius failed to make use of Faraday's electrochemical laws in his laborious determination of equivalent weights.