Evaluation and orientations to Grade 10 mathematics in schools differentiated by social class

Shaheeda Jaffer

doi:10.4102/pythagoras.v41i1.578

Abstract

In South Africa, differential performance in school mathematics with respect to social class remains an enduring concern as reflected in national and international large-scale assessments. The article examines the implications of evaluation for orientations to mathematics in a school populated by learners from upper-middle-class or elite backgrounds and a school populated by learners from working-class backgrounds. The particular focus is on mathematics problems featured in tests used by two Grade 10 teachers in each school and teachers’ marking of learners’ test scripts. A distinction between single-topic and multi-topic mathematics problem types is refracted through an analysis that draws on the adaptation by Davis of Lotman’s distinction between content orientation and expression orientation with respect to the reproduction of texts.The analysis reveals a preponderance of single-topic mathematics problems and the absence of multi-topic mathematics problems employed in the school populated by learners from working-class backgrounds and the presence of both single-topic and multi-topic problem types in the school populated by learners from middle-class or elite backgrounds. Differences in the types of mathematical problems suggest differences in mathematical demand expected of learners and differences in their preparation for examinations in the two social class contexts.The selection of test problems and the marking of test scripts as instances of evaluation construct an orientation to mathematics that is expression oriented in the working-class context whereas both expression and content orientations are evident in the middle-class or elite context. The analysis provides a potential explanation for the persistent disparity in mathematics performance along social class lines in South African secondary schools.

Highlights

Narrowing the achievement gap in school mathematics in South Africa with respect to social class remains a persistent social justice issue in spite of extensive curriculum reforms
Some smaller qualitative studies are concerned with the nature of the relation between mathematics performance and social class in an attempt to understand the underlying factors impacting on learner performance in school mathematics
Arbor High learners were only exposed to singletopic mathematics problems in their tests which were restricted to mathematics problems encountered during the observed lessons with no variation in the way problems are phrased

Summary

Introduction

Narrowing the achievement gap in school mathematics in South Africa with respect to social class remains a persistent social justice issue in spite of extensive curriculum reforms. Difference in school mathematics performance between learners from middle-class families and learners from working-class families in South Africa has to a great extent been documented in large-scale quantitative studies (e.g., Reddy, Van der Berg, Lebani, & Berkowitz, 2006; Spaull & Kotze, 2015). National assessments (e.g. matric examinations) and international assessments (e.g. Third International Mathematics and Science Study, TIMSS) continue to reflect both a social class and ‘racial’ achievement gap in school mathematics (Spaull, 2019). Graven & Venkat, 2017; Schollar, 2008) tends to focus on learners from working-class families as part of efforts aimed at closing the social class performance gap ( see Graven, 2014) since those learners constitute the majority under-performing in mathematics. There are a few exceptions, studies focusing on learners from working-class families, ‘Black’ learners in schools previously http://www.pythagoras.org.za

Objectives

Results

Conclusion