Images of Mathematics Curriculum Held by School mathematics Teachers: Mapping the Road for Transformative Pedagogies

Images of Mathematics Curriculum Held by School
mathematics Teachers: Mapping the Road for
Transformative Pedagogy
Laxman Luitel and Binod Prasad Pant
School of Education Kathmandu University, Nepal
3/24/2019
Science and Mathematics International Conference (SMIC)
2018
1

Prologue
• Rote learning and memorization are
dominant in teaching and learning
mathematics.
• Ask students to memorize the formulae,
standards step of problems solving,
important definitions, theorems, facts,
postulates, axioms, etc. (Pant, 2015).
• Guided by the view of “practice makes
man perfect”
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Contd…
• School level mathematics textbooks are
heavily content loaded with lots of
routine problem.
• There is very low representation of
teacher during the curriculum
development process.
• Narrow view of curriculum –
Curriculum as list of content (Luitel,
2009).
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Contd…
• The tendency of underrepresenting teachers and other
stakeholders in the curriculum development process has
contributed to an unsustainable and elitist mathematics
education that rarely provides and opportunity to enrich
existing mathematics curriculum by including local context and
contents (Luitel & Taylor, 2005)
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Contd…
• Teachers understanding of mathematics
curriculum is different
• In order to incorporate transformative
pedagogies teacher has to play pivotal role
inside the classroom
• In which the process of becoming critically
aware of our practices as well as paradigm shift,
critical self reflection, critical discourse and
opportunities to test and apply new knowledge
and perspectives.
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Review of Literature
• Meyers (2008) has discussed transformative pedagogy as a social
action that encourages students to critically examine their assumptions
and beliefs.
• Alsubaie, (2016) has mentioned that effective curriculum should
reflect philosophy, objectives, learning experience, goals, and
assessment that comprise a specific educational program.
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Contd…
• Schubert (1986) has discussed eight images of the curriculum. This
represents different versions of the conceptualization of curriculum.
• Images of the curriculum (Curriculum as agenda for social
reconstruction, Curriculum as Currere) are mostly guided by
emancipatory interest that creates spaces for transformative pedagogy.
• Transformative pedagogy is such teaching strategy that promotes
student’s engagement and participation by posing real-world problems
that address societal inequalities and helping students implement
action-oriented solutions
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Purpose and Research Question
• The main purpose of this study was to explore the images of
mathematics curriculum held by the secondary school mathematics
teacher during their educational and professional journey as well as
talks about transformative pedagogy
• For this, the research question of the study is: How have mathematics
teachers been employing different images of the mathematics
curriculum in developing and applying mathematics pedagogies?
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Theoretical Interest
• We subscribed knowledge
constitutive interest (Hebermas,
1972) as a theoretical referent
throughout the study.
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Contd…
• Technical interest and mathematics
curriculum (empirical ways of
knowing)
• Practical interest and mathematical
curriculum (interactive ways of
knowing)
• Emancipatory interest and mathematics
curriculum (transformative ways of
knowing)
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Research Methodology
• The narrative research design is used to capture the experiences of
participants from their own perspectives (Clandinin, & Connelly, 2004).
• Qualitative data often focus on smaller numbers of people than quantitative
data, yet the data tend to be detailed and rich (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison,
2007).
• Three participants
• Free interview (Cobertta, 200)
• The analysis the data text in this research study involves summarizing the
mass of data collected and presenting the results in a way that
communicates the most important features (Han-cock, 1998).
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Result and discussion
• Category A: Curriculum as the format used by the textbook writers
• Category B: Curriculum as like the proverb “the jack of all masters of
none”
• Category C: Curriculum is the student’s experience of learning
• Category D: Curriculum as the interactive process of teaching and
learning
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Curriculum as the format of textbook writers
• Framework and structure
• As one of my research participants Raju said, Curriculum is a format of the
textbook that writers follow, so that the content in the mathematics textbook
is same for all the schools. Curriculum also provides a roadmap and guides
the writers what should be mentioned and what in particular grade. He
further mentioned, "I never saw the curriculum because I am not a textbook
writer but the syllabus mentioned in the textbook gives me a picture of the
curriculum."
• The mathematics textbook writers normally try to incorporate the routine
mathematical problems as contents to enhance the objectives mentioned in
the curriculum. In this context, mathematics textbooks are itself seen as
mathematics curriculum.
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2018
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Contd…
• Students are forced to buy more than one book written by
different authors, as well as guess papers and solution sets
in which their creativity is limited to the algorithmic process
of readymade problem-solving.
• Students are considered as consumers of fixed teaching
materials and pedagogy.
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2018
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Curriculum as like proverb “the jack of all
masters of none”
• Trying to indicate mathematics curriculum
covers various contents in a superficial
way.
• In this regard, Hari mentioned that; I am always
in rush to finish the course and syllabus. So that
I am not able to go in-depth on any topic. I just
introduce the topic and focus on some routine
problems. I think it could be better if the content
is less and contextual.
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Contd…
• Lecture method
• Guide by technical interest
• The mathematics curriculum tries to cover many contents which
is difficult to cover in one academic session in meaningful ways.
• Surficial teaching and learning considered as a superior in which
teachers are not able to focus on in-depth knowledge.
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Curriculum is the students’ experience of
learning
• I always keep the curriculum in center during planning. On the basis
of framework and objectives of the curriculum, I design the activities,
choose the pedagogies as well as assess the students' learning
outcomes. Similarly, the mathematical problems are more contextual
and relevant related to the topic. -Biswodeep
• Focuses on students’ centered learning and flexible teaching and
learning process.
• Teachers have autonomy to revise the curriculum on the basis of
students’ specific needs and interests.
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Contd…
• Maintaining open communication
between teacher and students
• Supports the context, students’ needs,
and interest, societal change, etc.
• Activity based instruction,
collaborative and cooperative
approach, etc.
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Curriculum as the interactive process of
teaching and learning
• In this context, one of my research participants (Prakash) said that
students themselves create the mathematical problem related to the
topics instead of solving the readymade problem. Students are trying
to connect each and every topic to daily activities. They are free to ask
questions and critiques the existing practices.
• incorporate the local practices, value students’ experiences in
classroom practices
• He further expressed that, I don’t believe with the view that curriculum
is an ultimate and final document and try to make aware of students,
parents, and schools administration about this
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Contd…
• Critical pedagogy (Freire, 1993),
transformative approach of teaching, etc.
are the main teaching pedagogy.
• Autobiographical texts, reflections, project
work, presentation, etc. are also the
sources of assessing their learning out-
comes.
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Epilogue
• This research study indicated that when the word curriculum is used at
the school level, a variety of definitions, meanings are likely to be
attributed according to the people’s understanding.
• Mathematics teachers are likely to act on the basis of their
understanding of the mathematics curriculum.
• In this 21st century, understanding and development of curriculum
through traditional ways, guided by the technical interest is not more
effective to promote inclusive and contextual teaching and learning as
well as transformative pedagogy.
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Contd..
• Category C (Curriculum is the student’s experience of learning) and
category D (Curriculum as the interactive process of teaching and
learning ) provides the map for transformative pedagogy than the
category A and the Category B.
• It is also concluded that curriculum development and implementation
is a social process where transformative pedagogy could help to make
changes in the present context (Meyers, 2008)
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References
• Alsubaie, M. A. (2016). Curriculum development: teacher involvement in curriculum development. Journal of education and practice, 7(9).
• Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, M. (2004). Knowledge, narrative and self-study. In International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 575-600).
Springer, Dordrecht.
• Cohen, L., Manion. L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education (6th ed.) London: Routeledge.
• Corbetta, P. (2003). Social research: theory, methods and techniques (B. Patrick, Trans.): Sage publication.
• Giroux, H. A. (2001). Theory and resistance in education: Towards a pedagogy for the opposition. Green-wood Publishing Group.
• Grundy, S. (1987). Curriculum: Product or praxis? London: Falmer Press.
• Habermas, J. (1972). Knowledge and human interests. London: Heinemann Educational.
• Hancock, B. (1998). Trent focus for research and development in primary health care: an introduction to qualitative research. Trent focus group.
• Luitel, B. C. (2009). Culture, worldview and transformative philosophy of mathematics education in Nepal: A cultural-philosophical inquiry (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Science
and Mathematics Educa-tion Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
• Luitel, B. C., & Taylor, P. C. (2005). Overcoming culturally dislocated curricula in a transitional society: An autoethnographic journey towards pragmatic wisdom. Paper
presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
• Meyers, S. A. (2008). Using transformative pedagogy when teaching online. College Teaching, 56(4), 219-224.
• Pant, B. (2015). Pondering on my beliefs and practices on mathematics, pedagogy, curriculum and assess-ment (An unpublished M Phil dissertation). Kathmandu University,
Dhulikhel Nepal.
• Schubert, W. H. (1986). Curriculum: Perspective, paradigm and possibility. New York: Macmillan
• Seatter, C. S & Ceulemans, K. (2017). Teaching sustainability in higher education: pedagogical style that make difference. Canadian journal of higher education, 47(2), 47-70.
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Images of Mathematics Curriculum Held by School mathematics Teachers: Mapping the Road for Transformative Pedagogies

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