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Symmetry: Culture and Science
Volume 35, Number 2, pages 177-196 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.26830/symmetry_2024_2_177

THE INTERSECTIONS OF INDIGENOUS RELIGION, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM IN MATHEMATICAL SYMMETRY

Clement Ayarebilla Ali

Department of Basic Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana
Email: ayarebilla@yahoo.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-3268-6452

Abstract: Pupils have always presented their mathematical thought through their religions. However, teachers gloss over these relationships. In this study, I explored the philosophy behind religious intersections among Indigenous, Christian, and Islamic pupils interacting in one class. Standing on narrative phenomenological design, mathematics representations, practices, and applications were the three congruences developed by the principle of saturation from the pupils’ lived experiences. I also formed focus group discussions that comprised a class of 40 pupils. I made 10 groups, and each group was composed of 10 participants that cut across the three religions. The responses were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed. The results showed that the three religions shared many similar mathematical thoughts. However, one, three, four, five, and ten featured more than the other numbers. This implies that the philosophy of religious values in mathematical practice must anchor on the three objects permeating all three major religions.Pupils have always presented their mathematical thought through their religions. However, teachers gloss over these relationships. In this study, I explored the philosophy behind religious intersections among Indigenous, Christian, and Islamic pupils interacting in one class. Standing on narrative phenomenological design, mathematics representations, practices, and applications were the three congruences developed by the principle of saturation from the pupils’ lived experiences. I also formed focus group discussions that comprised a class of 40 pupils. I made 10 groups, and each group was composed of 10 participants that cut across the three religions. The responses were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed. The results showed that the three religions shared many similar mathematical thoughts. However, one, three, four, five, and ten featured more than the other numbers. This implies that the philosophy of religious values in mathematical practice must anchor on the three objects permeating all three major religions.

Keywords: Christianity, Indigenous, Islam, intersection, mathematical symmetry.

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