Developing Culturally Contextualized Mathematics: The Journey to Becoming a Transformative Teacher

This article studies the first author’s (Hem) transformation from a traditional practitioner to a critical and culturally responsive Nepalese mathematics teacher. This paper is developed from the perspective of the first author’s experience using the first person “I†. I have thoroughly examined my past experiences as a student, teacher, and educational researcher in schools within the Surkhet Valley, Nepal. The main purpose of this study is to critically explore my experiences of learning and teaching mathematics, both within and outside their contexts, and to envision myself as a transformative learner, teacher, and educator in mathematics. This study is framed through the research question: How can I envision myself as a transformative learner and teacher of mathematics? This study aims to explore the mathematical concepts that learners have acquired through context-based instruction. Moreover, I gradually shifted my focus from merely solving mathematical problems to effectively teaching my subject through a decontextualized mathematics teacher to a contextualized mathematics teacher. At this moment, I am navigating a critical point and actively searching for more effective alternatives to enhance culturally meaningful learning for students through a shift toward transformation. This study employs a narrative inquiry approach to deeply reflect on my lived experiences as a student, teacher, and educational researcher in mathematics education. In this approach, narratives of pedagogical practices analyze traditional decontextualized mathematics and investigate transformative pedagogy as contextualized mathematics. I utilized three theories: living education theory, sociocultural theory, and transformative theory.