Ethnomathematics and cultural identity: Afro hairstyles as a symbolic language in mathematics teaching

This essay proposes rethinking mathematics teaching from a culturally situated perspective, aiming to contribute to building more equitable and meaningful classrooms for Afro-descendant students. Using the approaches of ethnomathematics and critical intercultural education, it argues that Afro hairstyles can be understood as cultural artifacts that embody geometric structures, patterns, transformations, and algebraic relationships that engage with the school curriculum. Far from being anecdotal, these practices are analyzed as embodied mathematical languages, capable of articulating logical reasoning and cultural identity. The work discusses the pedagogical and identity implications of incorporating this knowledge into the classroom, highlighting its potential to strengthen students' mathematical identity and challenge the supposed cultural neutrality of the discipline. Furthermore, it posits that this proposal contributes to processes of cognitive justice by validating historically excluded knowledge. In this sense, the challenges that this approach poses for teacher training, curriculum design and educational assessment are reflected upon, and lines of future research are suggested that are oriented towards a more humane, contextualized and transformative mathematics education.