While the students maintained that their conceptions of mathematics had no direct effect on their performance on quantitative work, the study pursued this assertion by directly exploring their conceptions and perceptions in relation to the research methods for their studies. The students were asked two questions to establish whether their perceptions and conceptions prefigured their educational preferences and choices. One was why they pursued social sciences and the second was which research method they are using for their current research and why. They are quoted as saying:
Student 1: “I was rejected in pure sciences because my maths was not strong-these were childhood ambitions- no regrets”
Student 2: “I was not good in mathematics and therefore eliminated my wishes to do science”
Student 3: “ I wanted psychology undergraduate and policy and development at post graduate level and they happened to be in the social sciences”
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Student 7: “My results in maths were not so good so I wanted a theory based discipline. I like helping people”
Student 8: “Am interested in human behaviour, want to understand situations than formula”
Student 9: “I like history and geography and so the social sciences won me over”
Student 11: “The registration process for the social sciences was swift than the commerce that i wanted thus registered with the social sciences”.
An array of factors led to the students’ registration for the social sciences were submitted.
These range from time factor (meeting deadlines), personal preferences, default and by design. One of these factors is an acknowledgement of an unsuccessful attempt to pursue mathematics majors which was shared by some of the participants and particular interest is given. The responses where the students acknowledge failure to pursue pure sciences gives the impression that those students are found in the social sciences as an adaptive response to the determining nature of the system of learning or as an available alternative to the hard sciences. In other words, for these, the choice of the social sciences as a major is aligned congruently with the lack of mathematical disposition and as a convenient alternative avenue to hard sciences. It is also adaptive in the sense that as soon as students realise that they cannot be accepted in the hard sciences or struggle with mathematics, they adjust their aspirations to match their perceived abilities and the social sciences happen to be a match for their perceived abilities and opportunities.
5.6.1 Students’ Conceptions and Perceptions of Mathematics in Prefiguring their Choice of Research Methods
Student 3: “I chose qualitative methods because I wanted to keep away from calculations. I like narrating that’s why I chose qualitative research. The topic also required qualitative methods”
Student 7: “I appreciate the fact that I wasn’t to crack my head over maths that I was lazy to do. But for the good of society and the demands of work place. Figures make more sense if you understand them deeply. You tend to underestimate what you are required to do if you lack understanding”.
Student 8: “Using qualitative methods because I need to get understanding what motivates people to act and that cannot be answered through quantities”
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Student 4: “Want both because topic determines that. I am now more aware of the value of maths and maths treated me good”
Student 5: “Triangulation because the topic requires triangulation –people are my x and y. I still have a horrible attitude towards maths though”
Student 6: “Qualitative because of nature of the study”
The responses on the choice of research methods was a combination of all the research methods as reflected in the responses above. Most students were using the qualitative method. They were quick to explain that they were not evading quantitative methods and that
“it is because of the nature of the study”. Most of the students who use qualitative methods voiced their preference for qualitative research over quantitative research and there was no admission of a struggle with the mathematics underlying quantitative methods.
The fact that ten out of twelve of the students were using qualitative analysis is particularly astounding. The students’ confession to preferring qualitative research over quantitative research is understood to suggest that in some cases people act in favour of their perceived chances of success in social contexts and that people are aware of their strengths and weaknesses and thus hardly pursue success in areas where they know they are not competent or in a “world where the accepted skills, style and informal know-how are unfamiliar” is according to Swindler (2007:274). I argue that although the nature of the study may influence the choice of research method to be used in acquiring the required knowledge, the final decision on which method the researcher uses is filtered through the subjective experience and opinion of the researcher. This assertion is well articulated by Ozbilgin et al (2005:859) in arguing that “any scientific endeavour is established on the assumptions made by the researcher regarding the nature of reality (ontology) and scientific practice (epistemology and methodology)”. The students’ “it is the nature of the study” response is attests to the fact that; “although individuals make choices, they do not choose the principles that govern these choices…and such is the role of objective structures in setting limits to agents' choice of goals” (Ozbilgin et al., 2005).
5.7 Mathematics Curriculum Changes’ Influence on Students’ Perceptions and Conceptions
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The South African mathematics curriculum changes, particularly the introduction of mathematics literacy as discussed in the literature, are articulated to have influenced the students’ perceptions and conceptions as follows:
Student 3: “Pure maths was hard and was failed. The beatings were also unbearable then I took mathematics literacy”
Student 5: “I chose maths literacy at high school because I didn’t see myself being a doctor or an engineer. Maths was hard”
It was established that all the students had done mathematics throughout their primary and high school education and some aspects of mathematical operations in higher education, particularly at post-graduate level. All the students had done higher grade mathematics at high school except two who did mathematics literacy. The reasons advanced for opting for mathematics literacy were captured as above. The students’ responses seem to suggest that mathematics literacy was a convenient alternative to stick to their comfort zone, although they did not excel in mathematics literacy either.
This can be interpreted to mean that the introduction of institutional reform is an attempt to reorganise the students’ perceptions and to induce an alternative habitus towards mathematics. As Daniel, Habib and South-Hall (2003:275) argue in the literature, most of the mathematics curriculum reforms were not successful. This confirms how habitus is resistant to change and that, while structural adjustments are implementable, adjusting habitus to match the coordinates of the structural adjustments is easier said than done. As Bourdieu refers to habitus as the structured structure, changing habitus therefore means ‘un-structuring’
parts of the structure and replacing them with parts that make up the desired habitus. It entails
“alteration of concepts and exchange of old concepts for new ones as students learn new facts such that what was formerly important becomes unimportant and vice versa.” (Rubenstein, 2001:82). The few students who cope well with structural adjustment can be understood in light of Swartz (2002:63S in quoting Bourdieu) in the theoretical framework that:
“individuals possess the ability to be introspective and reflective of their actions is varying degrees”.
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