35 students’ attitudes. Students will exhibit such behaviours if their needs are not met in the classroom and they do not understand the mathematics content being taught. Govender and Sookrajh (2014) therefore argue that policy makers need to take into account the influence of classroom discipline in the context of changing curriculum policies as it has increased the workload of teachers and caused discipline problems in the classroom. It can thus be concluded that, with changing policies, managing the classroom in such an environment is indeed a burden for most teachers.
Administration tasks that teachers take on with the increasing changes in policies are numerous.
According to Hongying (2007) administration burdens in the changing school climate are the reason that most secondary school teachers are disgruntled with their work. With each change in policy there are administration tasks that accompany such a reform. Moreover, Gȕr (2014) reports that because of curriculum prescription, teachers have less control and as a result of bureaucratic monitoring to ensure quality education they have increased administration tasks and they face busier schedules. This removal of autonomy or deskilling of teachers intensifies teachers’ work, making them do more tasks in less time than before; with their involvement in administration tasks there is less attention to the needs of students (Apple, 1988). This is one factor that may explain discipline problems that arise in the classroom. Teachers’ work in implementing new curriculum policies is indeed overwhelming, confusing, intensified and complex.
Challenges that mathematics teachers face when implementing new
36 Apple (1992) discusses mathematics teachers’ work from a political, economic and cultural perspective. A subject such as mathematics is seen as an economically useful subject to create a better workforce that is economically viable for the country (Apple, 1992). As such, more pressure is put on the mathematics teacher. In South Africa there was a move from an apartheid society to a democratic one and that meant a huge shift in education especially in providing equal education for all. However, Apple (1992) warns, an overemphasis on an egalitarian education system will lead to a crisis in the economy and culture. This means that equal distribution of resources to schools will lead to public schools having little resources and an unmanageable class size. The consequence of implementing new mathematics curriculum policies with their administration burdens may add to the stress of the already overworked teachers in South Africa. Furthermore, the once neoliberal philosophy that was intended when Curriculum 2005 was introduced to encourage a participatory classroom aimed at creating independent and critical thinkers with a democratic form of decision making (Mncube &
Harber, 2010), has now moved more towards neoconservative principles where the state has more control through curriculum policies (Apple, 2003). Student diversities such as race, class and gender also extend to mathematics as it is seen as a high status subject and economically viable (Mhlolo, 2011; Apple, 2003). Mathematics is expected to lead to better job opportunities for students. This has intensified teachers’ work in order to provide quality education in mathematics for all students. Furthermore, the prescription of a curriculum policy give more administration burdens and little time for mathematics teachers to be innovative in the classroom.
2. Language of instruction
The language of instruction in most South African schools is English (Maille, 2011). Maille (2011) proposes that the reason for this is that South Africa’s current education system is Eurocentric due to succumbing to the dominant international forces of globalisation in order for South Africa to address its market needs. As English is an internationally recognised language, it has become the language of instruction in most schools in South Africa. The problem that many of the teachers have is that they have to teach mathematics in English to students, for many of whom English is not their mother tongue. This issue is exacerbated as Setati (2005) argues that mathematics is a language in its own right. Mathematics, therefore, requires profound knowledge of the language of instruction in order for students to understand and interpret the learning content (Abedi & Lord, 2001). So, students have to learn mathematics
37 in English and with mathematics having its own abstract vocabulary, it becomes a mammoth task for teachers to teach mathematics. This extends and deepens the frustrations teachers have to make mathematics literate to all students. Essien (2010, p. 34) states that, “learning and teaching mathematics to multilingual students is complex and the teacher grapples with this complexity”. With the constant curriculum changes in mathematics and with language issues, teachers have a difficult time in the classroom,
Literacy in education is a problem in many developing countries especially as language forms an important part of the learning process. South African teachers face the challenge of teaching students from multilingual backgrounds in a language that they may acquire only when they start their formal education (Visser, Juan & Feza, 2015). This is the reason that Reddy (2006) found during the research for reasons for underachievement in mathematics in TIMSS examinations, that African school students where English was not the mother tongue, performed poorly. Howie (2003) also revealed that students perform better if the language of instruction was the same as their home language. Thus, as South Africa is a multilingual country, language is an important aspect of education to be acknowledged. Teachers have to deal with the numerous tasks of teaching English using the ground rules for teaching the language of instruction in the educational setting and then teaching the subject content (Brodie, 2010; Essien, 2010). Moreover, teachers have the added task of making mathematics literate to students by incorporating their everyday language where students express what they know in their own language, incorporate this knowledge into English and then interact with the language in the textbooks. Halai (2004) recognizes that this is not a straight forward matter.
Teachers have so much more to do in teaching mathematics as they have to negotiate through the language barriers to teach mathematics and with constant change in curriculum their workload increases.
3. Stress and negativity towards mathematics education
With the numerous challenges that teachers have to face with curriculum change and teaching mathematics, there will be anxiety and feelings of negativity towards mathematics and the teaching of mathematics. Sowder (2007) states that having to cope with change provide emotional challenges for the teacher. If teachers believe that mathematics is a set of rules and procedures and those beliefs are challenged by changes in a curriculum that promotes
38 democratic principles, this can lead to anxiety in the teacher (Collopy, 2003). This anxiety leads to negativity towards mathematics and the teaching of mathematics and these feelings are reciprocated to students who may get feelings of helplessness and dislike towards the subject matter (Ma, 1999). The resultant effect is that students who do not have a positive attitude towards mathematics will not be able to achieve in mathematics (Maree, Fletcher & Erasmus, 2013). If this is the case then students’ poor achievement in mathematics adds more stress and work for the teacher as they are held accountable if students underachieve in mathematics (Beets, 2012).
Stress and anxiety may have detrimental effects on teachers. Louw, George and Esterhuyse (2011) posit that in developing countries such as South Africa, transformation aims to rectify the injustices of the past, therefore, if not enough preparations are made to adjust to the changes, that leads to difficulty for teachers in coping. Teachers then become disillusioned with educational practices and if they continue to stay in their profession they experience burnout (Louw et al., 2011). Mathematics education is indeed complex especially with the numerous curriculum changes and challenges that teachers face in the classroom so there is little wonder that teachers experience these feelings of anxiety.
Conclusion
In this chapter a discussion was undertaken on what mathematics teachers’ work actually entails and how new curriculum policies influences this work. From the literature referenced I have ascertained that teachers’ work is complex and I have attempted to find out how teachers’
work is intensified when they try to enact new curriculum policies in mathematics. Thereafter, the curriculum changes from C2005 (1997), RNCS (2002), NCS (2007) to the current CAPS (2012) curriculum were discussed. The themes that followed interrogated the roles of the teacher in the Norms and Standards document (2011, 2000) and related to discuss mathematics teachers’ work when implementing new curriculum policies. The Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications document (2011) prescribes the seven roles as the collective responsibility of all educators at the school; roles will be carried out according to teachers’
positions in the school, however, all the roles seem to be prevalent for every educator and not as a collective. Teachers are leaders, managers and administrators. They have to mediate knowledge in the classroom which keeps changing with each curriculum policy change.
39 Assessment, according to changes in curriculum policies, has to be carried out to ensure student achievement. To mediate knowledge they have to be theoretically knowledgeable to do so adequately, as mathematics content has changed with each curriculum change. Furthermore, teachers have to be involved in professional development activities to understand and work with each new curriculum. Values are embedded within the key principles and have to be used within the teaching practice in the classroom. So whether the teacher knows the roles prescribed for them in the Norms and Standards document or not, they are using them. Finally, this chapter tries to show that mathematics teachers’ work is complex, time-consuming and challenging and that curriculum policy changes require policymakers and practitioners to collaborate intimately before any changes can be rolled out, to obviate or minimise any serious challenges in the teaching and learning spaces. The next chapter will seek to understand why teachers implement new curriculum policies in the way they do. To do this, a theoretical framework drawing on Lèvi-Strauss’s (1967) 'bricolage' will be used to understand and critically analyse diverse concepts that are linked to discuss the teachers’ decisions in implementing new curriculum policies.
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