Circular Movements of Healing with Maths, Arts and Craft: Reimagining disciplinary transversals for learning recounts experiences where the authors tried to cross over disciplinary boundaries found in science and mathematics. Susan Gerofsky’s project details how adults re-storied their relations with mathematics while investigating the mathematics of mazes. Ricardo Nemirovsky explains how sculpting (especially passing from 2D figures to 3D shapes) can develop new knowledge on geometry, even for adults who are familiar with geometry. Anna Chronaki and Ulrika Ryan show the tensions student teachers can feel while exploring geometry with their body and making connections between the geometry and curriculum content. Maria Letsou describes how ceramic sculpture can support the development of risk-taking and the use of serendipity across disciplines. Anna Chronaki and Eirini Lazaridou show how to counter hierarchies by bringing children and adults to learn together while creating crafts. Nicholas B. Torretta details the lessons institutions should learn from capoeira: respectfully challenging what is already in place and re-connecting with the past and ancestral knowledge to give opportunities to re-continue. Overall, Circular Movements of Healing with Maths, Arts, and Craft argues for the need of mathematics and science disciplines with a slower pace, that transcend the hierarchies and boundaries usually present in the field, and re-connect the disciplines to the living things, the planet, and humanity.
“Experiences shaped through such practice can inspire learners to overcome hesitation, take initiative, make thoughtful choices, and grow, ultimately contributing to the transformation of their learning communities.”
This passage was an important learning moment for me. In my school, the lack of risk-taking and resilience is a problem that is commonly identified by our mathematics teacher from grade 1 to 11. In my groups, the most successful students are those who are willing to take risks: try out an idea even if they are not sure that it is the right way to solve the problem. I needed to take risks to be able to be successful in Cegep, where I started being more challenged by STEM courses. Although, it seems that the way we teach mathematics now is doing the opposite of encouraging risk-taking. Each year, I get more students with math anxiety and refusing to put some work down if they are not 100% sure how to do it. It seems that they are so afraid of not getting the final answer right that it is not worth trying anything. Thus, I agree with the article’s arguments for the need of transversing disciplinary boundaries and re-thinking some of our systems. If the way we teach mathematics was perfect, we would see students being confident in taking risks. And if transversing disciplinary support positive attitudes towards risk-taking, then we definitely need more or those activities in our classes. It could also help students see that they have strengths in mathematics they were not aware they have. For example, Nick Sayers mentioned at the beginning of the interview that he thought he was bad at math (Gerofsky, 2026). I am sure our classrooms are full of students like Nick Sayers, who are exceptional artists, scientists, and mathematicians, but are not aware of it because of the boundaries present in science and mathematics.
”The task was integrating, relaxing, and empowering the participants.”
After I read this quote, I started wondering how this activity or using the body and the arts to explore mathematics in general can empower learners. Paolo Freire wrote that a radical person is someone who does not get imprisoned by the circles of security, but rather work to deconstruct those circles (1968/2021). The boundaries present in sciences and mathematics can be seen as those circles of security, circles we have been reproducing without questioning their relevance in our time. Transversing the boundaries and the hierarchies allows more people to enjoy mathematics, promote risk-taking, creates new ideas and new ways of seeing mathematics concepts, to redefine our relationships with the world and the living things (Chronaki et al. 2025; Gerofsky 2026), and to be critical about what we learn and how we learn it (Chronaki et al. 2025). Transversing the boundaries aligns with all of the values of mathematics for human flourishing defined by Su (2020). Thus, transversing the boundaries empower learners by allowing them to question the methods that have always been used and by showing to more people they can be mathematicians as well, and that their ideas, even if different, are valuable. In my classroom, using the body and the arts to teach mathematics empower my students by allowing them access to mathematics. It shows them that they can be part of the mathematics community without having to leave a part of themselves behind. It gives them the power to want to struggle, to continue mathematics after high school and pursue STEM careers, which is an important need in the community.
Questions:
How is teaching mathematics through the arts and the body empowering the students in your classroom? Do you notice using the arts and the body improves your students’ willingness to take risks?
References:
Chronaki et al (2025). Circular movements of healing with maths, arts and craft: Reimagining disciplinary transversals for learning. In Proceedings of MACAS 2025, University of Moncton, NB.
Freire, P. (2021). Pedagogia do oprimado. (É. Dupau & M. Kerhoas, Trans). Éditions de la rue Dorion. (Original work published 1968)
Gerofsky, S. (2026, February 18th). Nick Sayers interview. [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/1166172275/3a7a243bce?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
Su, F. (2020). Mathematics for human flourishing. Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvt1sgss
Hi Noemi, your post really highlights something I think many of us see in our classrooms but don’t always name out loud: the growing hesitation students feel when engaging with mathematics. I resonated deeply with your observation that the students who thrive are the ones willing to take risks, even when they’re unsure. That willingness to try, revise, and try again is at the heart of mathematical thinking, yet so often students do not have the confidence to take that leap. Maybe it's because they are nervous about being wrong or sounding stupid among their classmates. One of the strongest connections I felt to your summary of Circular Movements of Healing with Maths, Arts and Craft is the idea that stepping outside traditional disciplinary boundaries can help rebuild students’ relationships with math. The examples in the article shows learners being invited back into mathematics through play, creativity, and physical experience. These are low‑stakes entry points where mistakes are part of the process, not evidence of failure. When students can feel the math in their hands or bodies, the fear of being “wrong” softens, and mathematical exploration becomes possible again.
ReplyDeleteYour point about students refusing to start unless they’re 100% sure ties directly to that quote about overcoming hesitation. So much of math anxiety comes from a belief that there is one correct method and one correct answer, and that anything outside that narrow path is a waste of effort. Teachers really have to push, and model, the idea that learning happens when mistakes are made and it should be ‘normal’ to try, make a mistake, and try again. When we incorporate arts, movement, and craft, we disrupt that idea. Suddenly, the process matters more than the product. Students get to experience math as something flexible, creative, embodied, and this opens the door to risk‑taking in a way worksheets never will.
I really related to your connection to Nick Sayers. His comment about thinking he was “bad at math” speaks to how many learners internalize narrow definitions of what it means to be “math‑able.” Your observation that classrooms are full of “Nick Sayers”, students who are mathematicians without realizing it, feels so true. The boundaries we place around math often hide students’ strengths rather than revealing them.
You also make a powerful point about flourishing. Su’s (2020) framing of Mathematics for Human Flourishing connects beautifully with the article’s themes. Flourishing requires curiosity, creativity, resilience, and connection, all qualities that grow when mathematics is intertwined with the arts and the body. It’s meaningful to hear how you’ve seen this in your own classroom: students feeling empowered to struggle, pushing themselves, and seeing STEM pathways as possible futures.
Noemi, I remember attending the panel discussion at MACAS where these authors shared their projects. I appreciate how you pulled out the idea of transformation and applied it to the challenges at your school. I think risk-taking is a problem in many places. I have encountered this in teaching middle years, high school and adult education. With my adult learners who often had difficult math experiences in their earlier schooling, I found that the more I included new approaches to teaching mathematics such as collaborative work, inquiry projects, incorporating their own interests and hands-on tasks, the more open they were to taking risks. They began to see math differently and rewrite their story. Through breaking the status quo by using embodied mathematics, arts, or crossing disciplinary boundaries, we open up that opportunity for students. As you mentioned, that also allows for human flourishing. Including more embodied and arts-based activities supports students in risk-taking because it gives them another entry point into mathematics. One of my greatest joys as a teacher, and especially in my experience as an adult education teacher, has been seeing students find a pathway into mathematics and begin to understand the role mathematics plays in their life. It is so wonderful to watch people rewrite their math identity story towards something more positive.
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