{"id":67046,"date":"2020-07-14T09:50:59","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T13:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=67046"},"modified":"2020-07-15T08:45:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T12:45:29","slug":"faculty-focus-joyce-mgombelo-is-making-sense-of-the-world-one-equation-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/07\/faculty-focus-joyce-mgombelo-is-making-sense-of-the-world-one-equation-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"FACULTY FOCUS: Joyce Mgombelo is making sense of the world, one equation at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: Faculty Focus is a monthly series that highlights faculty whose compelling passions, innovative ideas and various areas of expertise help weave together the fabric of Brock University\u2019s vibrant community. For more from the series, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Joyce Mgombelo was a child growing up in Tanzania, one of the things she most looked forward to was her older brother Henry coming home from boarding school and quizzing her on math.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had this bond that was around doing mathematics,\u201d says Mgombelo. \u201cThe seed was planted. I loved that, and I continued on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mgombelo, Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at Brock University, focuses her research on math education and teaching students in the Faculty of Education to learn how to effectively teach it themselves.<\/p>\n

She pursued her undergraduate degree from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania before teaching in a secondary school, and eventually saw an ad to study in Canada on a Canadian Commonwealth scholarship.<\/p>\n

Without having seen that ad, Mgombelo might never had applied for the scholarship \u2014 let alone get it \u2014 and pursue her master\u2019s and PhD from the University of Alberta.<\/p>\n

However, the path wasn\u2019t quite that linear. After completing her master\u2019s degree, she returned to Tanzania and re-applied for the scholarship to complete her PhD from Alberta. She was elated to receive it for the second time, but had the scholarship retracted.<\/p>\n

You can only receive it once.<\/p>\n

Mgombelo persevered, earning a research fellowship from the International Development Association – World Bank for her PhD. Her studies would eventually lead her back to her home country in an unexpected way.<\/p>\n

While at the University of Alberta, she made friends who would also become colleagues, developing a dream of working together in Tanzania.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In 2010, six years into Mgombelo\u2019s time at Brock, an opportunity presented itself, and she and her former colleagues from Alberta \u2014 Professor of Secondary Education Elaine Simmt and Professor of Mathematics Florence Glanfield \u2014 secured a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant, followed by a larger Partnership Development Grant.<\/p>\n

The goal was to search for the answer to a question Mgombelo had been thinking about for some time: How can universities work with communities, governments and non-government organizations to enhance mathematics teaching and learning in rural and remote communities?<\/p>\n

In the midst of that grant, the Canadian Development Agency (now Global Affairs Canada) announced a funding opportunity for universities to do development projects in targeted countries, including Tanzania.<\/p>\n

The project, titled \u201cCapacity Development for mathematics teaching in rural and remote communities in Tanzania,\u201d remains the thing Mgombelo is most proud of during her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe highlight of my academic life was working with my colleagues and in the remote and rural areas of Tanzania,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are many people at Brock working on international projects and making a difference to communities in the developing world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Faculty of Education\u2019s reputation at Brock attracted Mgombelo to the University, as well as the opportunity to collaborate with faculty members in the Faculty of Mathematics and Science\u2019s Department of Mathematics and Statistics.<\/p>\n

She never planned to spend the rest of her life in Canada, and was only convinced by her brother \u2014 the same one who helped her love of math flourish.<\/p>\n

She says she\u2019s grateful she took his advice and sees her purpose of staying in Canada as pursuing things that would\u2019ve been far more difficult if she had returned to Tanzania after her PhD.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a highlight for me to be able to give back to the country that gave me my initial education and life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She notes that mathematics is one of the key conceptual fields that help us understand the world and make informed decisions, such as elections, percentages and budgeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMathematics is a human activity that allows us to make sense of our world,\u201d she says. \u201cIt allows us to be engaged in our decisions and be informed. One example I always use with students is the tragedy that happened with Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. It took bringing in very different people to learn what happened, including mathematicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recognizes that math is a challenge for many people, and that one of her own greatest challenges is convincing students they can overcome it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to share this passion and remove this fear from mathematics with my students,\u201d says Mgombelo. \u201cI strongly believe that everybody can do mathematics. You are mathematical as a human being. You might not like it, but you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Joyce Mgombelo was a child growing up in Tanzania, one of the things she most looked forward to was her older brother Henry coming home from boarding school and quizzing her on math. \u201cWe had this bond that was around doing mathematics,\u201d says Mgombelo. \u201cI loved that, and I continued on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":67047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,7,41,1,4,4665],"tags":[159,6805,356,32,2592,8634,98,348,6094,3325],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67046"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67098,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67046\/revisions\/67098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}