A Postcolonial Rendition of Mathematics Education of Nepal: An Auto/ethnography Inquiry

Abstract

The research issue emerged through my lived experiences. I have experienced that modern education had started by blaming the Nepali people as illiterate and uncivilized by creating a meta-narrative that they need to be educated and civilized. Likewise, it instigated the misconception that we have no onto-epistemic practices and no history of mathematics education (ME) worth including in the curriculum. In this context, three experiential metaphors, a winner-takes-all approach of curriculum, pedagogy as/for developing false consciousness, and assignment as/for instigating marginalization have guided me to formulate an overarching research question: How has the colonial legacy embedded in ME and how do my research participants and I construct visions for inclusive ME in Nepal? I have used postcolonial perspectives (Gandhi, 2019; Said, 1978; Young, 2016), knowledge constitutive interest (Habermas, 1972), and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1993, 2005) as theoretical referents. I have employed postcolonialism as a broadly connected and complex theoretical perspective that enables me to zoom out to the larger scenario of ME, not limited to the human kingdom, and explore the interdependence and coexistence of human beings and the rest of nature by incorporating strategic essentialism. The knowledge-constitutive interest (Habermas, 1972) and critical pedagogy (Freire, 2005) helped develop a vision of an inclusive curriculum, futuristic pedagogy, and transformative assessment by fostering the notion of collective well-being and autonomous responsible scholarship. The nature of my research issues demands a multi-paradigmatic research design. I have incorporated critical paradigm—taking a stand, interpretive paradigm—grounding in a context, postmodern paradigm—multiple representations, and integral paradigm—making holistic meaning. I have used a postcolonial auto/ethnography (Lamichhane & Luitel, 2023b; Toyosaki, 2017) to explore the colonial remnants in ME. Its dialectical and praxis-oriented approach allowed me to embrace writing as a process of inquiry, leading me to create layered writing. In so doing, narrative, poetic, metaphorical, and non-textual genres, as well as formal and informal conversations (dialogues) have been used to generate field texts. Likewise, the postcolonial auto/ethnography enabled me to adopt empathetic, inclusive and healing perspectives as an ethical responsibility of the researcher. In this inquiry, I have explored how the existing mathematics curriculum seemed irrelevant. It did not recognize learners' lifeworlds by endorsing an exclusive view of reality, promoting colonial ideology—consumerism, linguistic erasures, and the devaluation of onto-epistemic practices and scholarship. I have also revealed that pedagogy focused on developing magic/naïve consciousness, magnifying social/epistemic injustices, and concealing the glocal crises. In a similar vein, the existing assessment system used to validate epistemic injustices through the colonial numerological approach further promotes disciplinary egocentrism in ME and blames learners for their underachievement. In this context, I have offered an inclusive vision of ME. The mathematics curriculum incorporates the zoe, eco, and techno visions to raise awareness of the world's present crises and to realize a coexistence of human culture and the natural world for healing wounded humanity and the planetary earth. Likewise, it underscored the urgent need to teach children, not just mathematics, to cultivate spiritual consciousness and foster transformative praxis to create a peaceful, socially just, and sustainable future. To achieve these traits, my inquiry has suggested adopting an engaged pedagogy to enhance critical consciousness, encouraging learners to pay attention and make a possible contribution to planetary well-being and social and epistemic justice. Moreover, this study revealed that assessment in mathematics must be embedded in the learning process to enhance epistemic justice, enrich holistic learning, and cultivate healing praxis. It illuminates that education should not turn into a weapon for destruction but become a place in which righteous work, responsibility, forgiveness, benevolence, and spirituality are cultivated. Finally, this research contributes to the fields of postcolonial renditions of ME and postcolonial auto/ethnography, encouraging my readers to critically reflect on curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment practices to bring about transformation by opening new discourse in ME in the context of Nepal.