I had initially planned to work with five pairs of teachers in task-based interviews from the 40 teachers who had responded in writing to the eighteen ICAS items. The challenge of getting teachers to commit to attend interview sessions became a problem because of their work and study commitments. At the end I only managed to interview only one teacher (Teacher A) from the original 40 and paired her with teacher B from the second Maths GET ACE class. Teacher A had achieved the highest of all the 40 teachers in the written ICAS items. Teachers B, C, D, E and F volunteered to participate in the study even though they did not write the original eighteen ICAS items. All the six teachers gave consent in writing to participate in the study and to respond in writing to the five interview ICAS items chosen and to be interviewed. It was by sheer coincidence when Teacher A and B came together for the interview that they realised that they knew each other as they were together in the HOPE project and they had worked together before. Teacher C and D were also interviewed as a pair using task-based interviews. Teacher E and F were interviewed individually.
The interviews took 60 – 90 minutes and it was amazing how the teachers were committed till the end. As much as I wanted to do a study of Grade 6 teachers, I realised that it is not easy to find a teacher who teaches only Grade 6. The majority of teachers teach multiple grades and so most teachers teach across Grade 4 to 6 and even up to Grade 7. Below, in table 3.4 is the profile of the teachers that were
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Table 3.4: Interview participants
Teachers Qualifications Teaching Class Experience Teaching Profile
A Higher
Diploma in Education
(HDE)
Grade 6/7 14 years She is involved in the Hope project –group sessions that help teachers develop their geometric skills. Qualified as a teacher and taught under the former TED. Her average2 in the ACE mathematics specialisation is 80%. The last AMESA conference attended was in 2003 (Cape Town) B Senior Primary Teachers Diploma (SPTD)
Grade 6 20 years He is also involved in the Hope project and qualified as a teacher at a former “Coloured College of Education”. He averages 80% in the ACE mathematics specialisation
C B.Ed in
Educational Management
Grade 6 15 years She qualified as a teacher in the former ‘Indian College of Education” and upgraded her qualifications to obtain a B.Ed. Her average is 80% in the mathematics specialisation
D Senior
Primary Teachers Diploma
Grade 6 14 years She qualified as a teacher at a former ‘DET” College of Education and averages 60% in the ACE mathematics specialisation
E B.Ed in
Educational Management
Grade 6/7 14 years He qualified as a teacher at a former “TED” College of Education and averages 75 % in the ACE mathematics specialisation. He studied further to obtain his highest qualification (B.Ed)
F Senior
Primary Teachers Diploma
Grade 6 14 years He qualified as a teacher at a college of education in Zimbabwe and averages 75% the ACE mathematics specialisation
Teacher A had a passion for geometry “I like geometry, and …when you like something, you teach it well…” were actual words during the interview. She was one of the very few teachers who managed to find the answer to the item requiring calculation of diagonals of a 15 sided regular polygon. This teacher initially trained at a “white” college of education under apartheid and went on to acquire a lot of
experience whilst teaching for many years. She has also participated in a community of practice forum provided by the Association for Mathematics Education (AMESA) conferences and is involved in experiential learning offered by the Helping our People to Excel (Hope) project, which focuses on improving the geometric teaching skills of primary school teachers.
Teacher B has a wealth of experience, having taught for 20 years in Grades 6 and 7 in one school and also involved in the HOPE Project where as a “Junior Facilitator –they do new things and it’s hands-on, that’s what I like about …I mean 3D objects. We make the children build with straws, etc.” He is a group
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leader3 in the ACE class and a top performer. He worked well together with Teacher A. The interview with Teacher A and B was conducted in the afternoon at a primary school in Kempton Park where teacher A is the deputy principal. The interviews for Teachers C, D, E and F took place during school holidays at the Wits School of Education.
Teacher C has taught for the past 15 years. She did not feel well on the day of the interview but managed to share some interesting thoughts the ICAS items. She qualified as a teacher at an Indian college of education prior to 1994. She has studied further and has a B.Ed in educational management systems and an incomplete M.Ed (Educational Management) coursework and mini dissertation. She tended to dominate the interview and sometimes did not give teacher D an opportunity, unless I specifically requested teacher D to explain her thoughts.
Teacher D, comes from a background of a former Department of Education and Training College of Education (Matric + 3 years), where teachers were taught all the subjects offered in school because of the belief that a primary school teacher must be able to teach every subject. Therefore had no specialized training in the pedagogic content knowledge of mathematics and low content knowledge of mathematics. She enjoys the ACE programme opportunities to immerse herself in mathematics content and
methodology. She displayed a submissive attitude during the interview and agreed with basically everything Teacher C said, unless I specifically asked her first to elaborate a concept or thinking pattern. Although she has an overall teaching experience of 14 years, she had only two years experience teaching mathematics in Grade 6. She teaches at a township primary school with few educational resources.
Teacher E qualified as a teacher at a “white” college of education (Matric + 4 years). He gave very long explanations outlining the particular mathematical strategies he employed in solving the problems. He teaches at a former model C primary school which is better resourced and well managed. He is highly computer literate and often searches the internet for free teacher resources and information. He is also one of the top performing teachers in the ACE programme.
Teacher F qualified as primary school teacher at a college of education in Zimbabwe and has been teaching in South Africa for the past six years. He has 14 years mathematics teaching experience and also worked well with the National Curriculum Statement and knew his way around the assessment standards.
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I do realise that this is a skewed sample because the six interviewed teachers are relatively top achievers in the ACE programme as revealed by their profiles. However they did provide interesting data revealing their geometric thinking which when taken together with the 40 ACE teachers provides interesting insights.