Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB)
Introduction: Making Math Meaningful Through Connection, Collaboration, and Reconciliation
Across education systems, mathematics is often experienced as a technical and content‑driven discipline, valued for its precision, yet too often disconnected from students’ identities, cultures, and lived experiences. This framing can unintentionally reinforce colonial assumptions about whose knowledge counts and how mathematical understanding is constructed. At the same time, Indigenous Education emphasizes wholistic learning, relationality, story, and responsibility to community and land. The challenge, and opportunity, lies in bringing these perspectives together in ways that decolonize mathematics practice while strengthening instructional coherence and student learning across the system.
Historically, system efforts to improve mathematics instruction and to advance Indigenous Education have moved forward in parallel, each with shared commitments to equity and belonging but limited opportunities for sustained collaboration. Recognizing this gap, the Mathematics and Indigenous Education departments intentionally came together to explore how their collective strengths could support a more meaningful and reconciliatory approach to mathematics teaching and learning. Guided by a wise practice and relational framework developed by Indigenous Education, this partnership centred relationship‑building, co‑learning, and shared responsibility as foundational conditions for change.
This collaborative work embraced syncretism (the purposeful blending of tools, perspectives, and professional practices) as a way of walking forward together. Rather than positioning Indigenous ways of knowing as an “add‑on” to existing math instruction, educators were invited to think differently about mathematics itself: as cultural, contextual, and deeply human. Through joint learning experiences, reflective dialogue, and shared planning, educators deepened their understanding of how decolonizing mathematics can honour multiple ways of knowing while enhancing mathematical reasoning, engagement, and relevance for all learners.
As a result, this partnership has strengthened cross‑departmental coherence, fostered professional trust, and supported educators in re‑imagining mathematics classrooms as spaces of connection, meaning, and reconciliation. By centring relationships and shared purpose, this work demonstrates how intentional collaboration at the system level can move reconciliation from principle to practice, thereby creating the conditions for sustained impact in mathematics teaching and learning.
Solution: Collaborative Learning that Honours Indigenous Pedagogy in Mathematics
Setting the Stage
Over the past two years, the Indigenous Education department and the Mathematics team have made a shared commitment to strengthening math facilitators’ understanding of Indigenous Knowledges and pedagogies. The 23 math facilitators support 38 elementary and 5 secondary schools focusing on closing gaps in student learning and coaching teachers to implement more effective teaching practices. Every three weeks, this group gathers for professional learning and networking to build cohesion across the system as well as deepen pedagogical and math content understanding. Through the seven specific learning sessions over the last two years, it was recognized that meaningful shifts in practice required more than resources or strategies; it required relationship-building, shared responsibility, and intentional learning grounded in respect and humility. During the first year of the partnership, professional learning focused on building foundational understanding of local treaties, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Indigenous worldviews and pedagogies, and the critical distinction between appropriation and appreciation. Learning experiences were intentionally co-designed through ongoing collaboration between consultants from both departments and were co-facilitated to model shared leadership and collective accountability. Equally important was the careful creation of a learning environment that reflected Indigenous pedagogical principles. Sessions emphasized relationality, dialogue, reflection, and inquiry, creating space for educators to listen deeply, ask questions, and grapple with complexity. A trip to Crawford Lake, where a 15th century Longhouse village has been reconstructed on its original site, was arranged to further build a foundation of understanding. By grounding this work in respect, care, and appreciation, the partnership established the conditions necessary for honest learning and for deeper integration of Indigenous perspectives into mathematics teaching and leadership.
From Knowledge to Practice
This phase of the work focused on supporting math facilitators to move from foundational understanding to authentic practice, building their capacity to thoughtfully embed Indigenous pedagogies, perspectives, and cultural teachings within mathematics instruction. This work was intentionally aligned with the board’s goal of Reinforcing Indigenous Educational Wellness, recognizing that decolonizing mathematics requires a shift not only in what is taught, but in how learning is approached, experienced, and valued. Building on learning from the previous year, Math and Indigenous Education consultants collaborated to co-design, facilitate and critically analyze a model lesson that made Indigenous ways of knowing visible within mathematics teaching and learning. This shared inquiry supported facilitators in bridging theory and practice while modelling how co-leadership and shared responsibility can strengthen instructional design.
The partnership was further extended by incorporating music as an additional lens for exploration, deepening both cultural and curricular understanding. Math facilitators engaged in collaborative learning to explore meaningful connections between Indigenous drumming and mathematical concepts. By honouring the cultural significance of drumming, facilitators identified curriculum connections such as estimating and representing rhythmic patterns, calculating the volume of rattles, examining circumference and diameter, and reasoning about how changes in the size of circular forms affect measurements and relationships. These explorations emphasized respect, cultural context, and intentionality, ensuring that learning centred appreciation rather than appropriation.
As math facilitators’ confidence and understanding grew, they were provided with increasing opportunities to apply their learning independently in classrooms and professional learning settings. In practice, these lessons demonstrated the powerful impact of centring student identities and lived experiences within math instruction. Educators observed increased engagement, richer dialogue, and deeper conceptual understanding, reflecting the possibilities that emerge when mathematics is approached as relational, cultural and connected. This phase of the work reinforced that decolonizing mathematics strengthens, not dilutes, curricular learning, creating space for all students to see themselves as capable and valued mathematical thinkers.
Results: Learnings and Reflections
This collaborative work resulted in strengthened relationships, deeper professional learning, and important insights about what it means to authentically decolonize mathematics instruction. A co‑created mathematics lesson, designed through intentional collaboration and grounded in respect for Indigenous pedagogies, engaged students in mathematical thinking through music. With this thoughtful preparation and shared intention, educators observed that the lesson engaged students in multiple ways, creating space for Indigenous students to celebrate and affirm their identities while enriching learning for all students through a greater appreciation of Indigenous Knowledges, perspectives, and relationships with community, land, and one another. However, a caution that surfaced was a focus on the final product or activity (such as beading, drumming or building a rattle). Without the context, the product or activity could overshadow the relational, cultural, and cognitive processes that underpinned it. To address this, consultants and facilitators engaged in open dialogue to reflect on impact, attend to any potential harm, and prioritize relationship repair. The teams took time to revisit the cultural safety continuum, modelled as co-learners, and acknowledged that humility is at the heart of this work. This reflection validated the ebb and flow that math facilitators were feeling in their feelings and confidence. This process was grounded in humility, accountability, and care, reflecting Indigenous understandings of learning as relational, reciprocal, and connected to community, place, and collective well-being. By reflecting and writing new commitments, math facilitators acknowledged the Silver Covenant Chain treaty and polished the chain. Facilitators expressed greater confidence to engage in Indigenous‑informed approaches to mathematics, understanding that missteps are part of the journey but necessary for deep learning and growth. As a result, the partnership deepened its shared commitment to process over product, reciprocal trust, and collective responsibility. Through this process, educators are better positioned to create mathematics learning environments where all students can experience belonging, respect, and meaningful engagement.