An Inquiry in Etnomathematics: Extracting traditional mathematics computations used by Qanat Practitioners

Recently, some mathematics education experts have acknowledged that incorporating cultural aspects into the curriculum has long-term benefits for students' academic progress in mathematics. It is believed that one of the reasons for students' disillusionment, anxiety, and failure in mathematics is the disuse of the cultural backgrounds around students themselves in the process of teaching-learning. Therefore, not paying attention to values, traditions, beliefs, language and habits, reflection of students’ culture prompted us to design mathematical problems in the field of digging qanat (aqueducts), which goes back to several thousand years ago in Iran. We tried to bridge the gap between students' formal mathematics and their culture and daily activities by using the mathematics which our ancestors used to solve their problems. Thus, we analyzed the data based on the theoretical framework of ethnic mathematics and using ethnography. The results show that our ancestors used mathematical works to solve their everyday problems and that incorporating their experiences into the mathematics curriculum could improve the teaching and learning process.