"Math is not for us, not an indigenous thing, you know": Empowering Taiwanese Indigenous Learners of Mathematics through the Values Approach

Abstract

The South-eastern region of Taiwan, Taitung, is home to the highest con centration of indigenous communities. Their status on indicators such a education level, SES, and life span are worse than other ethnic groups. The are also found to underperform in school mathematics. This paper report on a study that had been designed to understand more about the indigenous students’ want to learn, embodied by what they value in mathematic learning experiences. Eight Grade 4 indigenous students from a carvin class were interviewed. It was found that the indigenous students do no value mathematics learning, although they value innate intelligence at th same time that they value effort and out-of-schoo..