Mathematics Education and Torres Strait Islander Blocklaying Students: The Power of Vocational Context and Structural Understanding

Abstract

Torres Strait Islanders (TSIs) are Australian Indigenous people whose lands comprise the Islands between Australia and Papua New Guinea. As a consequence of past government policies, they share with Aborigines social disadvantages (Fitzgerald, 2001) that lead to mathematics underperformance and limit education, employment and life chances. This paper reports on an action-research collaboration between our research team and a vocational teacher to enable mathematically-underachieving TSI adult students to meet the requirements of a blocklaying course. It discusses Indigenous vocational mathematics, describes the theories behind our VET Project and the findings of the blocklaying collaboration, and reinforces the importance of vocational contexts and structural understanding (Sfard, 1991) when teaching vocational mathematics.