JADENKA – A model for intercultural, bilingual mathematics
How do indigenous children learn math? We all know that mathematics can begin to be taught at preschool and that it is a crucial subject for children’s performance at primary school, but Latin America and the Caribbean lags far behind other regions of the world. There also exist gaps between countries in the region as well as within each country. Panama’s indigenous communities are a good example. In this scenario, the Jadenka project seeks to help the children in Panama’s Ngäbe indigenous community. This initiative not only seeks to develop their math skills at a critical age, but also to take a bilingual approach, using both Spanish and their mother tongue, Ngäbere. It also combines Western math teachings with ethno-math methods – an approach to the science that preserves indigenous communities’ culture.
Problematic
Boys’ and girls’ success in math should begin with learning basic concepts in preschool. And yet, this is still a rare practice in Latin America, particularly in rural areas. In Panama’s Ngäbe region, home to one of the country’s largest indigenous communities, boys and girls are exposed to high poverty levels, illiteracy, and little or no access to opportunities to develop their math skills during the preschool period.
Solution
In this scenario, JADENKA has decided to launch a math program for preschool-age children in their mother language and with intercultural contents. Boys and girls participate in 30-40-minute sessions 5 times a week under the guidance of a teacher who resorts to audio lessons. Textbooks, physical objects for counting, and graphical material help the children learn numerical sequences and develop shape recognition and specialized skills.
Evaluation and Impact
The program was subject to an experimental evaluation in which 536 schools with Ngäbe children were randomly allocated to three groups: one received the bilingual curriculum, a second group received a bilingual curriculum adapted to the Ngäbe culture, and a third group of schools did not get any of the two. Researchers found that JÄDENKA not only improves western math skills in children, but also their ethno-mathematics and cultural adaptation abilities. This evaluation shows that children can learn mathematics in a creative manner that is close to their everyday lives, regardless of the context where they were born.