Proposing a “Work Smarter” Theory for Change That Leaves No “Mathematically Smart” Learners behind in South African Schools

Abstract

Persistently high failure rates in the mathematical science keep dogging South Africa and teachers are always blamed for failing learners and punitive systems designed thereof. Progressive views suggest that, rather than designing punitive systems against teachers, education needs to be grounded in a “theory of change” for it to bring about positive results but the existing literature about South Africa has not so far been able to provide such a theory. This theoretical paper attempts to bridge this underlying gap. Its main argument is that the South African Mathematics Education System fails persistently because it is not working smarter. Grounded in Repenning & Sterman’s systems dynamics theory, the paper provides evidence from both media and published literature to support this argument. The paper concludes with some recommendations on how the system could work smarter and not necessarily harder by identifying and nurturing its smart fraction or gifted learners in mathematics.