Catching Geometry Concepts in Brackish Water Fishing Culture in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo: An Ethnomathematics Exploration

Recent developments in mathematics curriculum in the Philippines call for contextualization of lessons. The lack of readily available contextualized materials adds burden to teachers. Ethno-mathematics helps address these concerns by providing research-based mathematics in the context of local culture. The community where brackish water fishing is common, may mutually contribute and benefit from interplay of learning from and for mathematics and culture. Focused on exploring and describing geometry-related concepts, how they are learned, and how contextualized mathematics lesson materials can be created, this study addresses gaps in geographical location, cultural context and theoretical basis of related studies. An ethnographic-case study design was used to collect, analyze and interpret data using interviews, observations and artifacts. Key findings were found namely, 1) geometry concepts exist in shapes and measurements of the pond and fishing materials which based on van Hiele’s model of geometric reasoning, were learned mostly at visualization level, with some cases of analysis and informal deduction levels, and; 2) geometry concepts were part of harvesting activities in the pond which can be a good context of mathematics lessons. These imply that geometry lessons can be created in a cultural context and learning materials can be created involving the cultural activities.