Exploring Inuit Students’ Responses to Number Talks

This paper focuses on how Inuit students responded to a Southern mathematics teaching strategy, known as number talks, in a Nunavut elementary school. Research on the effectiveness of number talks has been conducted in the elementary context (Boaler, 2015; Murata et al., 2017), yet there is little research that focuses on Inuit students’ perspectives of number talks as part of mathematics learning. The participants of the study included 10 students and their teacher in a Grade 1 classroom. Data methods included participant interviews, classroom observations, and artefacts generated in response to number talk routines. The results of this affirm what is known about the benefits of number talks and afford new understanding about how to view the teaching strategy through Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) principles as outlined by the Nunavut Department of Education (2007). Keywords: Inuit, number talks, culturally relevant pedagogy, elementary school, Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) principles