Introduction

Acknowledging the challenging and complex world we live in with climate change, geo-political instability, economic inequity, and social polarization, this chapter draws upon the key roles of ethnomathematics and mathematics education for understanding and remaking our relationships with each other and our planet earth. We begin by situating the book’s chapters highlighting the extensive contributions of Brazilian educator and scholar Ubiratan D’Ambrosio and what he termed the Ethnomathematics Program. We introduce this Program and its objective of deepening and broadening our understanding of how humans in different cultures and contexts “struggle for survival and transcendence.” As an introduction to Ethnomathematics and Mathematics Education: International Perspectives in Times of Local and Global Change, we emphasize how this book aims to be aligned with that objective. The book is organized around two main Parts: (1) Ethnomathematics and Schools (Cultural Self-confidence and Reclamation); and (2) Ethnomathematics, Challenging Colonial Logics, and Indigenizing. The 11 chapters are distributed along these two parts and written by authors representing 10 different countries. We discuss each chapter and the examples and extensions of pedagogies, theories, and conceptualizations of ethnomathematics provided. This introductory chapter concludes by highlighting the significance of the chapters aligning with D’Ambrosio’s commitment to the common good, to justice, and to peace in our complex changing world.