Challenges Regarding the Integration of Ethnomathematical Perspectives into Geometry Teaching: The Faculty Reflection

A significant gap exists, as research has revealed that teaching mathematics in classrooms is usually unrelated to the sociocultural contexts of the learners. This embedded mixed methods study explored the challenges mathematics teacher educators face in integrating ethnomathematical perspectives into Euclidean geometry teaching in the classroom. Eight mathematics teacher educators were included in the qualitative phase through purposive sampling. The qualitative data obtained through interviews and focus groups were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. On the other hand, 128 mathematics teacher educators were included in the quantitative phase through cluster and quota sampling. The quantitative data obtained through the survey was analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test. The mathematics teacher educators' accounts revealed college and educator-related challenges, including inadequate/lack of cultural examples in the geometry curriculum, a lack of clarity on how to integrate ethnomathematical approaches into geometry teaching in the curriculum, cultural diversity, financial constraints, time constraints, and gender discrimination. The quantitative study observed a statistically significant difference between the male and female cases in their response to the challenge of inadequate/lack of cultural examples in the geometry curriculum. In all, the findings obtained from the qualitative investigation revealed differences among male and female mathematics teacher educators regarding what they perceive as challenges regarding the integration of ethnomathematical perspectives. Implications for teaching and future research are reported.