Claudia Zaslavsky (January 12, 1917 – January 13, 2006) was an
American mathematics teacher
In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out Scholarly method, scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowled ...
and
ethnomathematician.
Life
She was born Claudia Natoma Cohen (later changed to Cogan) on January 12, 1917, in
Upper Manhattan
Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park (110th Street), ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and grew up in
Allentown, Pennsylvania. She attributed her first interest in mathematics to her early childhood experiences when she helped her parents in their dry goods store.
She studied mathematics at
Hunter College and then earned a master's degree in statistics at the
University of Michigan
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.
In the 1950's while raising her children she was the bookkeeper at
Chelsea Publishing Co. and taught pre-instrument classes to small children.
Math teacher
She became a mathematics teacher at Woodlands High School in
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census. It is a suburb of New York City.
History
Hartsdale, a CDP/hamlet/post-office in the town of Green ...
.
She pursued postgraduate study in mathematics education at Teachers College,
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, in 1974–1978.
During that time she sought to learn about
mathematics in Africa to better capture the interest of the African-American students in her classes.
She discovered "that little of what was known about this topic
frican cultural mathematicswas available in accessible sources."
Thus began a years-long project of assembling, organizing and interpreting a vast amount of little-known material on expressions of mathematics in diverse African cultures, including number words and signs, reckoning of time, games, and architectural and decorative patterns. Her field work on a trip to East Africa in 1970 was assisted by the photography of her husband Sam and travel guidance from her son Alan, then teaching in Kenya.
Zaslavsky wrote the book ''Africa Counts'' about mathematics in African culture to sum up her discoveries up to that time.
Her work was welcomed into the burgeoning field of
ethnomathematics In mathematics education, ethnomathematics is the study of the relationship between mathematics and culture. Often associated with "cultures without written expression", it may also be defined as "the mathematics which is practised among identifiabl ...
, which studies the ways in which mathematical concepts are expressed and used by people in diverse cultures in the course of everyday life. As she wrote, "scholars of ethnomathematics examine the practice of mathematics from an anthropological point of view."
Zaslavsky was a lifelong activist for civil rights, peace and social justice. She also mentored many new scholars and activists in the field of ethnomathematics, always remembering the importance of discovering and recognizing the mathematical accomplishments of groups currently underrepresented, including women. As a Jew, Zaslavsky had experienced her own struggles with discrimination against women and Jewish people during her formative years in the 1930's and 1940's.
Personal life
One of her children,
Alan Zaslavsky, became a teacher in
Kenya
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...
, a progressive activist, and later a statistician. The other,
Thomas Zaslavsky
Thomas Zaslavsky (born 1945) is an American mathematician specializing in combinatorics.
Zaslavsky's mother Claudia Zaslavsky was a high school mathematics teacher and an ethnomathematician in New York; his father Sam Zaslavsky (from Manhattan) ...
, became a mathematician.
Zaslavsky died of
pancreatic cancer in
Harlem, New York
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harl ...
, on January 13, 2006, survived by her husband Sam and their two sons.
Books
Zaslavsky's books include:
*''Africa Counts: Number and Pattern in African Cultures'' (Prindle, Weber, and Schmidt, 1973; 3rd ed., Chicago Review Press, 1999)
*''Preparing Young Children for Math: A Book of Games'' (Schocken, 1979)
*''Count On Your Fingers African Style'' (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1980)
*''Math Comes Alive: Activities from Many Cultures'' (J. Weston Walch, 1987)
*''Tic-Tac-Toe'' (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1982}
*''Zero: Is it Something? is it Nothing?'' (Watts, 1989)
*''Multicultural Mathematics: Interdisciplinary Cooperative-learning Activities, Gr. 6-9'' (1993)
*''Multicultural Math: Hands-On Math Activities from Around the World'' (Scholastic, 1994)
*''Fear of Math: How to Get Over It and Get On With Your Life'' (Rutgers University Press, 1994)
*''The Multicultural Math Classroom: Bringing in the World'' (Heinemann, 1996)
*''Math Games and Activities from Around the World'' (Chicago Review Press, 1998)
*''Number Sense and Nonsense: Building Math Creativity and Confidence Through Number Play'' (Chicago Review Press, 2001)
*''More Math Games and Activities from Around the World'' (Chicago Review Press, 2003)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaslavsky, Claudia
1917 births
2006 deaths
American anthropology writers
American ethnologists
Women ethnologists
Anthropology educators
Mathematics educators
Ethnomathematicians