7.2. Historical Background and Formation of the Mathematics Group
7.2.1. Who initiated the Mathematics Group?
Some international studies on teacher learning communities state that teacher learning communities are initiated by teachers themselves. Studies by William (2007) and Hargreaves et al. (2013) show that teacher learning communities tend to be more successful if they are initiated by the teachers themselves. Furthermore, Owen (2014) states that a teacher learning community is a group of teachers who come together as a team to help one another improve student learning. She elaborates that when a teacher learning community is initiated by teachers themselves, a collegial culture is facilitated which can lead to ownership and participation in continuous professional debates. A collegial culture means that teachers in a teacher learning community are all at an equal level in terms of power dynamics. Hence,
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understanding who initiated the Mathematics Group is one of the important aspects of this study on this teacher learning community in order to confirm the claim made in the above studies.
The participants who were interviewed had different views about who initiated the Mathematics Group. The two Mathematics teachers, Jabulani and Bongani, reported that the Mathematics Group was initiated by the NGO. Bongani, a Mathematics teacher (who comes from a neighbouring country and has taught in South Africa for five years), stated that the Mathematics Group was initiated by the NGO which is an outreach project of one of the private schools in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Therefore the NGO is part of the private school.
According to Hlengiwe, the cluster coordinator, and Siza, the NGO facilitator, the Mathematics Group was initiated by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) as one of the Mathematics clusters. However, this Mathematics Group differs from the other subject clusters as highlighted by Hlengiwe below:
In our case there is a lady we were working with, Siza (pseudonym), who is working for a certain NGO, who started to work with us at the time when we formed our Mathematics cluster.
According to the participants that were interviewed, the Mathematics Group differs from the other subject groups because of the Laptop project. The Laptop project is another activity within the Mathematics Group, organised by the NGO facilitator, which aims at equipping Mathematics teachers with computer- based teaching methods. Jabulani commented about the Laptop Project when he was elaborating on the difference between the Mathematics Group and other subject groups:
There is a computer group, where teachers are being taught how to use technology for the teaching and learning situation of Mathematics.
From a CHAT perspective, the Laptop project represents mediational artefacts in an existing activity system whose object is learning to teach Mathematics using the laptop, projector and Mathematics software. The NGO Mathematics facilitator, Siza, also stated that the Mathematics Group started with the Mathematics project in 2007, has been on-going since 2007 in two sites, and one of these two sites is the Mathematics Group in this study. This was confirmed by the Overview and Analysis Report of 2013 Grade 12 Results compiled by the NGO:
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It was started in 2007 in an attempt to address the crisis in the teaching of Mathematics in South Africa
Jabulani (who has taught Mathematics for five years) further highlighted how the Mathematics Group differs from the other subject clusters:
We have clusters in each and every subject. So I belong to the Mathematics and Physics clusters. However, these clusters are clusters where all the teachers have to be part of it as educators of a specific subject. The Mathematics Group is a specific group that I am part of. It is another part of the Maths project organised by NGO which is called the Laptop project.
These interview excerpts suggest that the NGO became part of the Mathematics Cluster which I now call Mathematic Group. In addition to these comments, there are a number of aspects of the Mathematics Group that makes it different from the other subject clusters, such as the frequency of workshops (NGO workshops take place twice a term and during school holidays) that are organized by the NGOs within and outside the circuit, the provision of material for Mathematics teachers and learners, and learning to teach Mathematics by using technology (some of these changes will be discussed in depth in Chapter 8). From a CHAT perspective, this situation suggests several layers of contradictions within and beyond the central activity system emanating from the crisis in the teaching of Mathematics. This is in line with the fifth principle of CHAT which posits that contradictions which are dilemmas or dissonances between and among aspects of activity systems are the driving force of change in the activity systems (Feldman and Weiss, 2010). In this case, the teaching and learning of Mathematics is the dilemma in the cluster as an activity system, the district and the country as a whole is the broader activity system. Figure 19 below illustrates the different layers of contradictions. As highlighted earlier, broken lines illustrate the contradictions.
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Figure 20: The flow of Contradictions in Mathematics Group
The contradiction of mediational tools, object, subjects, rules and division of labour which emerged from the data is further highlighted in the Overview and Analysis Report of 2013 Grade 12 Results as a crisis in the teaching of Mathematics. This contradiction has created another layer of contradictions of object (learning and teaching of Mathematics) and community (DBE, parents, principals and learners) due to poor performance of learners in Mathematics. The NGO provided laptops to the Mathematics lead teachers this shows that they believed there was a shortage of resources. The shortage of resources such as mediational artefacts also suggests another contradiction between the object (learning and teaching of Mathematics) and subjects (Mathematics teachers), because without adequate mediational artefacts like laptops, Mathematics teachers would be limited in their teaching to achieve DBE expectations. For the purpose of this study, the focus is on a certain group of Mathematics teachers in a circuit. Therefore, in terms of the CHAT framework, the NGO is part of the community of the Mathematics Group. From a CHAT perspective, the
Tools: teaching and learning resources
Outcomes: mastery of Mathematics concepts and teaching techniques
Subject: Mathematics teachers
Object: learning /teaching of Mathematics
Rules: DBE policies and expectations
Community DBE, NGO, principals learners
Division of labour Teachers learn and teachMaths
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Mathematics teachers represent the subjects of the activity and learning of Mathematics is the object that is enacted by the Mathematics teachers. The outcome of the object enactment is mastery of Mathematics concepts and teaching techniques after having learnt through participation in different tasks. The NGO as a community provides an on-going support for the Mathematics Group by facilitating content based, laptop project workshops for teachers.
The NGO facilitator also facilitates Saturday classes with the lead teachers, for learners selected from schools where teachers participating in the Mathematics Group are teaching.
These classes are conducted in a central venue within and outside the circuit. The NGO provides teaching and learning mediational artefacts such as worksheets, stationery, Mathematics equipment as well as refreshments at the workshops for teachers and learners, and it also subsidizes transport.
Therefore, the Mathematics Group was first initiated by the Department of Education as a Mathematics Cluster by grouping the Mathematics teachers of one circuit but then the NGO became a part of it to address learning and teaching of Mathematics. This formation of the Mathematics Group by the DBE seems to be in line with the contrived collegiality where there is: “administrative control of teachers’ interaction, as teachers meet to work on curriculum implementation targets set by their superiors” (Jita & Mokhele 2012, p. 3).
Generally, the poor performance of learners in Mathematics seems to shape the administration approach to the teaching and learning of Mathematics in the district. The departmental literature states that the clusters were also established as a method of ensuring that continuous assessment (CASS) of Grade 12 subjects is monitored. This monitoring of CASS takes place on quarterly basis (Jita and Mokhele 2012). Some findings in the study of teachers’ clusters in the South African context suggest interactions within the clusters which promote construction of new knowledge by some of the members of the groups (Jita &
Ndlalane 2009). In line with the findings of the study of teachers’ clusters in South Africa, the findings about the historical backgrounds of the Mathematics Group seem to suggest that Mathematics teachers are engaged in the construction of new knowledge such as learning to teach Mathematics with laptops as mediational artefacts.
The next section describes the aims of the Mathematics Group.
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