Toward liberatory mathematics: Paulo Freire's epistemology and ethnomathematics

Ethnomathematics is a way of looking at 'how culture - daily practice, language and ideology - interacts with people's views of mathematics and their ways of thinking mathematically'. By making a distinction between 'everyday' and 'academic' mathematics, educators have tended to devalue the mathematical skills people already possess. This article suggests how Freire's idea that 'individuals and cultures are located in the act of knowing' implies that they can be involved 'in the act of creating mathematics'. Although this article does not mention PRA, the arguments for using 'everyday' mathematics to become a liberatory force, link directly to the use within PRA of methods like ranking and pie charts.