E04: Opportunities for Civic Engagement in Maths Classroom (Nepal)

Transcription and Translation by Chatgpt Pragyee: In social studies, We often study about our festivals, and we also learn about the judiciary and executive bodies, right? And in that way, it helps students develop civic awareness. Similarly, do you think math education also provides opportunities for students to participate in society and foster civic awareness? If you believe that it does, then how do you try to initiate and provide such opportunities in your classroom? Rajendra: I actually didn’t have a clear idea about this. Now, regarding how I introduced civic awareness and similar topics, I might have done it in some ways, but I can’t say for sure that I did it exactly like that. But most of the time, when it comes to math, I always try to connect it to daily practical life. I feel that’s necessary because I believe that mathematics is for life. I believe that mathematics is not an isolated subject. It’s something we learn for life. For example, while teaching math, I often used to connect it to business activities and sometimes to festivals. For example, I used to assign project work—like, when a certain festival comes, a family usually spends money to organize and celebrate it, right? So as a math teacher, what I made my students do was this: “You are going to celebrate this festival,” and then I asked them to list out the expenditures under different headings. For example, in Nepal’s context, Dashain is a big national festival. So, for that festival, I asked students to sit with their family heads—father, mother—and find out what expenses the family made to celebrate that year's festival. Then they had to group those expenses, and after grouping, they had to present them using a pie chart.