A small-scale investigation into teachers' access to the regulating principles underlying the "new mathematics" curriculum in the Junior Primary phase

This research project focuses on the "new primary mathematics" curriculum that has been implemented in the schools in the Western Cape over the past six years. The specific question I addressed was, 'What access do teachers have to the regulating principles underpinning the 'new primary mathematics' curriculum". The term "regulating principles" is drawn from the work of Paul Dowling (1993;98). In terms of this research, the regulating principles are the theoretical underpinnings to the new curriculum, which include substantially a theory of learning. I explore access to the regulating principles through semi-structured interviews with six teachers, who have implemented this new approach with different degrees of success, as measured in their own terms. I also investigate the official Teachers' Guide for Mathematics (Cape Education Department, 1993) for explicitness of theoretical underpinnings. An analysis of the teachers' guide indicated that the regulatory principles were not made explicit and the research indicates that the teachers in my sample have restricted access to these principles. I conclude that teachers who have little access to the regulating principles are constructed as a subordinate voice in relation to teacher educators, and must of necessity rely on procedure for their practice and be subject to external validation. This raises questions as to the successful implementation of the curriculum, in that it limits access by teachers to the educational debates surrounding theories of knowledge and theories of learning, and so inhibits teacher involvement in curriculum implementation. It also limits the ability of teachers to interrogate their own practice.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

1995

Author dc:creator

• Long, Caroline

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ensor, Paula

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13506

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13506