FEDERATION FOR THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
UNB Student Wins National Competition for Relating Work to Improve Math Learning in our Increasingly Diverse Classrooms

As Canadian schools become more globalized, a Fredericton student's drive to help make math class more relevant and effective for people from all cultures and backgrounds has landed her a prestigious award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Zyrene Estallo, a master's student in education at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) majoring in curriculum and instruction, is one of five winners of the national 2023 Storytellers Challenge.

The annual competition - organized by SSHRC - drew the participation of hundreds of Canadian postsecondary students from coast to coast to coast. They were challenged to tell the story of how social sciences and humanities research is impacting our lives, our world and our future for the better.

"Math helps us make everyday decisions and is more important than ever in order to sustain life and create a better society, but when it comes to math learning, why are there students who find it hard to like and understand math?" said Estallo, who is carrying out the work of her supervisor, Dr. David Wagner, professor and associate dean at UNB.

 "Children of immigrant and Indigenous minorities often come to school with knowledge and practices that are different from school teaching methods and this can make learning math alienating and oftentimes, disengaging," said Estallo, whose award came with $5,000. Yet their cultural backgrounds bring with them ways that can enhance their knowledge and skills, and we need to develop math teaching from the storylines and identities of these students."

Estallo, who comes from Manila, Philippines, explained that the four-year study - called the Migration and Indigenous contexts of Mathematics Education (MIME) project - was launched to listen to and analyze immigrant and Indigenous students' experiences in math learning and understand how teachers, guidance counselors, and the rest of the school community experience these students. The results will be compared to those of similar projects under way in the U.S. and Norway, with the goal of identifying tools from which materials responsive to their learning can be created.

"We need to foster teaching that respectfully addresses all cultures, ensuring all identities are welcomed and embedded in students' learning," Estallo said, adding that the ultimate objective is to shape the future of math education, creating classrooms that support diversity, equity, and inclusion."

To participate in SSHRC's Storyteller's Challenge, postsecondary students were tasked with featuring their own research or a professor's research project in a video or audio clip of up to three minutes, or a text or infographic no longer than 300 words. Their stories demonstrated the value of social sciences and humanities in improving lives.

The five winners were announced during the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (Congress 2023), Canada's largest academic gathering and one of the most comprehensive in the world, taking place from May 27-June 2 at York University in Toronto.

Billed as a leading conference on the critical conversations of our time, Congress 2023 serves as a platform for the unveiling of thousands of research papers and presentations from social sciences and humanities experts worldwide. With more than 9,000 scholars, graduate students and practitioners participating, the event focuses on reckoning with the past and reimagining the future, with the goal of inspiring ideas, dialogue and action that create a more diverse, sustainable, democratic and just society.

Organized by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences in partnership with York University, Congress 2023 is sponsored by SSHRC, Universities Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Mitacs, SAGE Publishing, and University Affairs.