The Guji-Oromo people are an ethnic Oromo subgroup who inhabit southern Ethiopia. They are mainly pastoralists and agro-pastoral. The Guji have lived in their territory, which is supposed to be part of the cradleland for the Oromo people.
Published in Chapter:
Examining the Guji Oromo Ethnomathematical Games and Concepts
Elfneh Udessa Bariso (AHEAD, UK), Fufa Esayas (Bule Hora University, Ethiopia), and Dereje Biru (Bule Hora University, Ethiopia)
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 30
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-5021-2.ch008
Abstract
This chapter explores how the Guji Oromo people undertake ethnomathematical activities by applying their indigenous methods. Ethnomathematical activities include counting, locating (the activity of grouping, clustering, making network, etc.), measuring (the actions of quantifying, weighting, etc.), designing (planning, building, and pattern activities), playing (puzzles, paradoxes, models, games, hypothetical reasoning), and explaining (how to do things, activities [e.g., classifications, conventions, generalizations, and symbolic explanations]). This predominantly qualitative study identifies the indigenous ethnomathematical games and concepts and assesses the potential effectiveness of an integration of the ethnomathematics and formal mathematics on the learning/teaching experiences of pupils and teachers. Impacts of such integration on pupils' performance in mathematics assessment are examined. Such an action could enable to amalgamate the Western knowledge system with an African knowledge system to create synergy that might boost the quality of primary mathematics education in Ethiopia.