Whole-some Artifacts: (STEM) Teaching and Learning Emerging from and Contributing to Community

This paper braids together experiences from three Canadian projects committed to creating learning opportunities where Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, being, and doing might circulate together. Show Me Your Math/Connecting Math to Our Lives and Communities (Mi’kmaw territory/Nova Scotia), the First Nations and Métis Mathematics Voices Project (Anishnaabe territory/Ontario), and the READress Project (Kanien’kehá:ka territory/Québec) are each described, and individually and collaboratively explored to identify the ways in which STEM and mathematics emerged (or did not) from community, and contributed back to those communities. While unique in their own ways, each of the projects engaged in collaborative, reflective, cyclical processes of teaching and learning that were deeply rooted in community and ethical relationality. Unresolved tensions are reviewed regarding what is lost when mathematics and STEM more generally are privileged in these contexts, and questions about curriculum reform are presented.