Dr. Ruth Beatty and Colinda Clyne Receive Partnership Engage Grant for Research on Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education

Dr. Ruth Beatty (Associate Professor, Orillia) and Colinda Clyne (Coordinating Principal of Indigenous Education, Upper Grand District School Board) have been awarded a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant for their research project, titled “Researching a Comprehensive Culturally Responsive Indigenous Mathematics Program.”

Ruth describes the creation of culturally responsive Indigenous math educational opportunities for students as “the first step towards responding to the needs of Indigenous students with respect to math education.”

There are three main goals of their research:

(a) to work with community partners to establish protocols for engagement that brings together community members and classroom educators to create respectful, reciprocal relationships;

(b) to study the effects of integrating cultural knowledge, values, and perspectives on participating students’ cultural knowledge and mathematical achievement; and

(c) to assess levels of teacher confidence in co-planning and co-teaching with Indigenous community partners to incorporate holistic approaches of Indigenous pedagogy in mathematics education.

Ruth has been working with Indigenous artists and Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators in the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) for the past four years, exploring short-term, culturally based mathematics investigations in classrooms. The SHHRC Partnership Engage Award enables this work to continue in further depth through the implementation of year-long investigations in four participating UGDSB classrooms.

In 2021/22, Lakehead University received nearly $2 million in assistance from the Research Support Fund to support the indirect costs of research, which includes costs for supporting the management of intellectual property, research and administration, ethics and regulatory compliance, research resources, and research facilities.

Pictured below: Colinda Clyne (left) and Ruth Beatty (right)