Culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding Mathematics: The case of rural situated primary schools in Post-apartheid South Africa
The language of instruction, awareness, and creativity are at the centre of the realities faced by both mathematics teachers and learners, shaped by a socio-political history whose impact and legacy transcend generations in South Africa. Consequently, the dire state of mathematics education in South...
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| Language: | English |
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ERRCD Forum
2024-11-01
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| Series: | Interdisciplinary Journal of Sociality Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://pubs.ufs.ac.za/index.php/ijss/article/view/1330 |
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| author | Zingiswa Jojo |
| author_facet | Zingiswa Jojo |
| author_sort | Zingiswa Jojo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The language of instruction, awareness, and creativity are at the centre of the realities faced by both mathematics teachers and learners, shaped by a socio-political history whose impact and legacy transcend generations in South Africa. Consequently, the dire state of mathematics education in South Africa remains a cause for concern. Recognising the need to conceptualise and develop culturally responsive pedagogy, this paper presents the results from the third phase of a three-year longitudinal study focused on teachers' journeys in infusing indigenous knowledge when teaching geometry to senior primary learners in rural schools. This qualitative study, which followed a case study design, explored several approaches to discussing, teaching, and considering an immediate, perpetual, operative, and discursive approach as culturally disruptive pedagogy used as an indigenous way to promote geometric understanding. Observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with two purposefully selected participants after their lesson presentations to allow them to clarify, elaborate, and introduce more detail, enriching their explanations of the artefacts used. Results indicated that teachers’ references to several artefacts and indigenous activities, such as using straws, wool, and staplers, promoted the understanding of the construction of prisms and pyramids. Recommendations include training mathematics teachers to prepare lessons that incorporate indigenous knowledge and to explore ethnomathematics as a culturally responsive teaching strategy, particularly in contextualising mathematical geometry learning, so that this concept can have relevance and meaning for rural students. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b63cadbe738c410fa6ac14725a5c5d88 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2789-5661 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | ERRCD Forum |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Interdisciplinary Journal of Sociality Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-b63cadbe738c410fa6ac14725a5c5d882025-01-08T19:11:54ZengERRCD ForumInterdisciplinary Journal of Sociality Studies2789-56612024-11-014s111510.38140/ijss-2024.vol4.s1.061294Culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding Mathematics: The case of rural situated primary schools in Post-apartheid South AfricaZingiswa Jojo0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4949-1694Rhodes University, South AfricaThe language of instruction, awareness, and creativity are at the centre of the realities faced by both mathematics teachers and learners, shaped by a socio-political history whose impact and legacy transcend generations in South Africa. Consequently, the dire state of mathematics education in South Africa remains a cause for concern. Recognising the need to conceptualise and develop culturally responsive pedagogy, this paper presents the results from the third phase of a three-year longitudinal study focused on teachers' journeys in infusing indigenous knowledge when teaching geometry to senior primary learners in rural schools. This qualitative study, which followed a case study design, explored several approaches to discussing, teaching, and considering an immediate, perpetual, operative, and discursive approach as culturally disruptive pedagogy used as an indigenous way to promote geometric understanding. Observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted with two purposefully selected participants after their lesson presentations to allow them to clarify, elaborate, and introduce more detail, enriching their explanations of the artefacts used. Results indicated that teachers’ references to several artefacts and indigenous activities, such as using straws, wool, and staplers, promoted the understanding of the construction of prisms and pyramids. Recommendations include training mathematics teachers to prepare lessons that incorporate indigenous knowledge and to explore ethnomathematics as a culturally responsive teaching strategy, particularly in contextualising mathematical geometry learning, so that this concept can have relevance and meaning for rural students.https://pubs.ufs.ac.za/index.php/ijss/article/view/1330mathematicsgeometryindigenous knowledgerural primary schoolspedagogy |
| spellingShingle | Zingiswa Jojo Culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding Mathematics: The case of rural situated primary schools in Post-apartheid South Africa Interdisciplinary Journal of Sociality Studies mathematics geometry indigenous knowledge rural primary schools pedagogy |
| title | Culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding Mathematics: The case of rural situated primary schools in Post-apartheid South Africa |
| title_full | Culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding Mathematics: The case of rural situated primary schools in Post-apartheid South Africa |
| title_fullStr | Culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding Mathematics: The case of rural situated primary schools in Post-apartheid South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding Mathematics: The case of rural situated primary schools in Post-apartheid South Africa |
| title_short | Culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding Mathematics: The case of rural situated primary schools in Post-apartheid South Africa |
| title_sort | culturally responsive pedagogy for the promotion of understanding mathematics the case of rural situated primary schools in post apartheid south africa |
| topic | mathematics geometry indigenous knowledge rural primary schools pedagogy |
| url | https://pubs.ufs.ac.za/index.php/ijss/article/view/1330 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zingiswajojo culturallyresponsivepedagogyforthepromotionofunderstandingmathematicsthecaseofruralsituatedprimaryschoolsinpostapartheidsouthafrica |