Affirming learning capacity of Indigenous students in classrooms: one focus for pre-service teacher mathematics and science education research and practice

For some Indigenous students, school mathematics and science can be a 'fish out of water' experience. There is widespread agreement that Indigenous students' cultural knowledge is desirably incorporated into curriculum and pedagogical practice and Indigenous learners use the cognitive tolls of their cultural community to engage with school mathematics and science. We argue that beyond understanding and valuing Indigenous students' cultural knowledge, pre-service teachers investigate how this cultural knowledge can be used more productively in mathematics and science classrooms. The presentation positions Indigenous students as agentic in negotiating their mathematical and scientific learning dispositions. We explore the capacity building practices that draw on Indigenous students' cultural resources: cultural disposition, community knowledge and cultural capital. We use the term 'culture' to refer to an individual's habit of mind; the development of a whole society; or the whole way of life of a group of people (Rojek, 2007). A key purpose of the presentation is to emphasise the socially negotiated and embedded nature of meaning-making in mathematics and science education and how this can be made more apparent in pre-service teacher education