Listening to Indigenous early childhood practitioners : mathematics learning in community contexts

This paper reports the views of 19 Indigenous early childhood practitioners from regional and rural eastern Australia comprising part of the project 'Mathematical thinking of preschool children in rural and regional Australia: Research and practice'. Several themes were identified from the analysis of interview data: recognising rich and diverse opportunities for young children's mathematical learning, learning within the Indigenous community, raising expectations and aspirations of young children and practical ways of supporting professionals to promote mathematics learning. The implications of these findings for Indigenous preschool centres are pertinent to policy development, improvement of professional support and development of early childhood Indigenous mathematics education.13 page(s