At University of Hawai’i, ethnomathematics praxis, grounded in the work of Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, informs a new generation of adaptation practitioners in climate sciences, geographers, architects, agronomists and oceanographers. Ethnomathematics is an active, relational perspective of the environment and ecologies in which humans are embedded. Ethnomathematics “translates” those human+ earth relationships mathematically through interpretations of complexity (real situations of surviving and thriving) using the familiar of “everyday” sea-, sky- and land-scapes through local, ethnic and cultural perspectives. Ethnomathematic praxis grounds learners within space using mathematical constructs and understanding. In U Hawai’i in Manoa, my research examined ahupua’a watersheds and fish ponds, random distributions of coral boulders at Sandy Beach and cane restoration projects (rhizome growth) as fractal derivatives.                          

D’Ambrosio, U. (1985). Ethnomathematics and its place in the history and pedagogy of             Mathematics. For the Learning of Mathematics, 5(1), 44–48.

D’Ambrosio, U. (1999). Literacy, matheracy, and technoracy: A trivium for today. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 1(2), 131–153.

 D’Ambrosio, U. (2006). Ethnomathematics: Link between traditions and modernity. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

 D’Ambrosio, U. (2007). The role of mathematics in educational systems. ZDM, 39(1–2), 173–181.

 Rubel, L.H., Nicol. C. (2020) The power of place: Spatializing critical mathematics education, Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 22:3, 173-194, DOI: 10.1080/10986065.2020.1709938