Researching Mathematics Education in South Africa

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Perspectives, practices and possibilities The last decade has seen significant reform in the South African mathematics curriculum, and the mathematics education research community has grown markedly. Drawing on the proceedings from nearly a decade of the South African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE) conferences, this book reflects on the theoretical and ideological work that has contributed to the growth of mathematics education research in South Africa. Originating from the need to stimulate, record and extend such research, the volume also provides a historical analysis of forces that changed and shaped mathematics curricula over the years. Research themes explored include assessment, issues of language, aspects of radical pedagogy and progressive classroom practices, ethnomathematics, teacher education, and South African mathematics education research within its local and international contexts. The contributors to this volume are located across a wide range of institutional settings. They address diverse interests and concerns, exploring and extending new directions in mathematics education research, particularly within the changing landscape of post-apartheid South Africa. The editors of this collection argue that a new agenda in mathematics education research needs to be debated to better understand the connections between curriculum research, reform, policy, and practice. This publication may be considered an initial movement in this direction as it attempts to capture the broad range of research being done in mathematics education in South Africa.

Preface
List of acronyms

Part I: Research, curriculum innovation and change
1. Mathematics curriculum research: roots, reforms, reconciliation and relevance
Renuka Vithal and John Volmink

2. Towards a framework for developing and researching groupwork in mathematics classrooms
Karin Brodie and Craig Pournara

3. Mathematics education and language: policy, research and practice in multilingual South Africa
Mamokgethi Setati

4. Teachers assessment criteria in school mathematics
Cassius Lubisi

5. Ethnomathematics research in South Africa
Paul Laridon, Mogege Mosimege and David Mogari

Part II: Researching teacher education: diverse orientations, merging messages
6. Holding the past, living the present and creating a future: trends and challenges in research on mathematics teacher education
Jill Adler

7. Pre-service mathematics teacher education: building a future on the legacy of apartheids colleges of education
Anandhavelli Naidoo

8. Dilemmas in the design of in-service education and training for mathematics teachers
Mellony Graven

9. Dilemmas of change: seeing the complex rather than the complicated?
Chris Breen

Part III: Psychological, sociological and historical research and perspectives
10. Examining understanding in mathematics: a perspective from concept mapping
Willy Mwakapenda

11. Knowledge and pedagogy: sociological research in mathematics education in South Africa
Paula Ensor and Jaamiah Galant

12. A history of mathematics education research in South Africa: the apartheid years
Bheki Khuzwayo

Afterword
Reflections on mathematics education research in South Africa
Christine Keitel

Appendix: List of SAARMSE/SAARMSTE Proceedings, 19922004
About the authors
Index

Dr Renuka Vithal is Associate Professor in the School of Educational Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Professor Jill Adler holds the Chair of Mathematics Education in the School of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Professor Christine Keitel is professor of mathematics education in the Department of Education and Psychology at Freie Universitt in Berlin.

In addition to the three editors, contributors to the volume include Professors John Volmink, Paul Laridon, Anandhavelli Naidoo, Chris Breen and Paula Ensor, and scholars and researchers Karin Brodie, Craig Pournara, Mamkgethi Setati, Mogege Mosimege, David Mogari, Cassius Lubisi, Mellony Graven, Willy Mwakapenda, Jaamiah Galant and Bheki Khuzwayo.