Viewing Mathematics Teachers’ Professional Identity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the Lens of Social Theory of Learning and Gender Schema Theory

Alghamdi Hamad Abdullah J Et Al

doi:10.17762/pae.v58i1.1501

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the profile of the professional identity of Mathematics teachers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the influence of Social Theory of Learning and Gender Schema Theory. The descriptive approach is used in this study. The sample size of this study is 600 secondary Mathematics teachers. This study used an adapted version of the questionnaire designed by Albaqi'i (2014) to profile the Mathematics Teachers' Professional Identity (TPI) of the participants. The findings of the study showed that there is no significant difference of Mathematics TPI in gender wise, but there is significant differences of Mathematics TPI based on teaching experiences and qualifications among the Mathematics teachers in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.The finding of the profile analysis gives some implications to understand how TPI is evolved among Mathematics teachers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the influences of teaching experience and professional development, which represent by their qualifications. The findings also informed that male and female Mathematics teachers did not perceive their professional identity differently, which suggest that Saudi Arabia culture permit equal participation in building their professional identity

Highlights

In the last decade, a series of studies have investigated the impact of culture on different societies, focusing mainly on Western counterpart
Several conferences were held to support the development of the teachers and the education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the first conference was in held in the year of 1973, the second conference was in the year of 1995 and the third one in the year of 1999.this study aims to profile Mathematics Teachers' Professional Identity (TPI) based on gender, teaching experience and qualification in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The result of the independent-samples t-test showed that there was no significant difference in TPI scores in Logit unit for group of male Mathematics teachers (M = 2.04, SD = 1.11) and group of female Mathematics teachers (M = 2.02, SD = 1.09; t (374) = 0.19, p > 0.05, two-tailed) (Table 2 and Figure 1)

Summary

Introduction

A series of studies have investigated the impact of culture on different societies, focusing mainly on Western counterpart. Abu-Raiya and Pargament (2011) stated that empirical Islamic psychology underscores the relevance of Islam to Muslims’ lives and well-being, and the need for greater attention to the Islamic religion when dealing with Muslim populations. Ali, Taqi, and Krishnan (2010) claimed that in a collective culture decision styles that maintain and reinforce consensus, such as consultative style, is valued and emphasised. Research shows that, decision styles that are serving an individual’s interest are embraced in individualistic cultures as reported in Ali, Taqi, and Krishnan (2010). Arabs were found to emphasise consultation and they demand humility when dealing with others (Ali, Taqi, & Krishnan, 2010). The central role values play in everyday life and the different profiles that emerge across different ecosystems has placed values at the core of cross-cultural research (Smith, Fischer, Vignoles, & Bond, 2013)

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