[Maths-Education] The Glen Lean Ethnomathematics Centre

[Kay Owens]

I am attaching information on a newly created Ethnomathematics Centre in
PNG. I would appreciate if a recipient might be able to send this
information onto R. Zepp, K. Hart, J. Kilpatrick, R, Souviney, Jerry
Becker, Murray Brit, and other NZ, and B. Nebres (and the similar centre in
the Philipinnes), Hooleys,  and others whom I am sure are interested but I
do not have their email address.
Thanks,
Kay

The Glen Lean Ethnomathematics Centre

This Centre has been established by the University of Goroka to preserve
and research the ethnomathematics, primarily of Papua New Guinea and
Oceania. It will also carry out research into the use of ethnomathematics
in mathematics education. 
The Centre was initially established by the receipt and cataloguing of all
the data in articles collected and analysed by Dr. Glendon Tolele Angove
Lean who was a lecturer at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology,
Lae for 22 years. During this time, and for 10 years after leaving PNG, he
collected data on the counting systems of the Papua New Guinea and Oceania
people. After leaving PNG, Glen lectured at Deakin University in Geelong.
He was awarded his doctorate by the PNG University of Technology, and
passed away in early 1995. For those of you who knew Glen personally, I
feel this Centre is a real tribute to him and to those who have shared
their counting systems with researchers and others over the past 150 years.
Glen collected first contact data in Dutch, British, German and Australian
records and journals.
Using extensive language data from other researchers, the Summer Institute
of Linguistics, early contact records, his own field notes, and thousands
of questionnaires completed by students from the University of Technology,
teachers and students in national high schools, he was able to develop a
comprehensive survey and analysis of the counting systems. He critiqued
theories on the spread of number systems from the Middle East and proposed
his own thesis on the development and spread of counting systems in the
world, especially in Oceania.
Glendon analysed nearly 900 of the 1200 counting systems in Papua New
Guinea and Oceania. The volumes of data on each system for PNG have been
available in hard copy since the early 1990s and can be found in libraries
of the universities, teachers colleges, and national high schools. He later
added the Oceania data as a further appendix to his thesis. A hard copy of
his thesis (printed from his disks) is available in the Centre as well as
the PNG University of Technology, and I assume Deakin and Monash libraries. 
In addition, the Centre holds all the photocopies of the early records and
later papers on the counting system that he had meticulously collected and
used. These are all catalogued as the Collected Papers of Glen Lean.
The Centre is currently building up its collection of papers on
ethnomathematics. It has several books on traditional practices. It also
has general papers on ethnomathematics and specific papers related to other
cultures. More importantly, it has a number of lecturers currently working
in the area of ethnomathematics and is attracting international visitors
and email communications.
This is a working centre continuing to collect information from elders,
researchers, and students and all contributions are welcome. New data will
continue to be stored and accessed. This data will be used to enrich the
school curriculum and teaching.
There is no doubt that this is a unique centre of value not only to Papua
New Guinea but the rest of the world. People preparing materials for Papua
New Guinea elementary schools have used the mathematics information
specific to their language. Primary and secondary school teachers can use
the database and collected materials to assist with their teaching.
However, much more can be done to collect data on traditional mathematics
practices and current practices. The development of the links to teaching
is only just beginning. Research and theory will gradually be established,
and play a voice in the presentation of ethnomathematics at an
international level. 
Where possible, information is being stored electronically with the
intention of making data available on the web to schools, education
officers, and the rest of the world.

Your Involvement
You may wish to send articles that you have written on ethnomathematics to
the Centre (they already have quite a few from some of you). 
You may wish to visit and carry out some research with the students or
staff. You can send your ideas by fax or by email to Dr Wilfred Kaleva,
uoglib@online.net.pg . I am happy to discuss your proposals first. I can
assure you that Goroka has a lovely climate as it is situated in the
highlands away from the tropical coastal steam. There are several kinds of
accommodation available. We could play sport, swim, and drink cappucinos.
There are gyms and running tracks. We felt safe and enjoyed our friendly
neighbours and those we met on the street or on the bus. 
The staff are keen for me to set up an email list of interested people so
that they can keep in touch and be ready with contacts when their email
comes on line.
If you would like to be a Friend of the Ethnomathematics Centre, then
please let me know. 
If you can find a way of financially supporting them, I am sure they would
appreciate that too. This is a new university in a developing country.
Nevertheless, they put aside funds for computer, scanner, printer, and a
parttimer to complete the data entry for the database of counting systems
which was started recently. To date, they have entered 80 out of the 900
counting systems. Previously copies of Glen's PNG appendices were available
from the PNG University of Technology. However, a fire burnt down its
mathematics and computer science department destroying all copies (not to
mention all the computers and staff programs and books - a huge
intellectual loss for them too).
PNG with its 800 languages and cultures is very rich. My dream is to think
that the school students feel as proud of their traditional maths as they
are of their traditional dances and designs and kinship relationships.

Kay Owens
University of Western Sydney Macarthur
PO Box 555,
Campbelltown 2560
Australia
phone: +61 2 97726430 or (02) 98685394 
fax: +61 2 97721565
email: k.owens@uws.edu.au