SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.41 suppl.2Responding to school funding challenges in no-fee and fee-paying schools: Lessons from South African principalsFunding inclusive education for equity and social justice in South African schools author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Article

Indicators

Related links

  • On index processCited by Google
  • On index processSimilars in Google

Share


South African Journal of Education

On-line version ISSN 2076-3433
Print version ISSN 0256-0100

Abstract

MWADZAANGATI, Lisnet  and  KAZIMA, Mercy. Would female student teachers at primary teacher education colleges study mathematics were it optional?. S. Afr. j. educ. [online]. 2021, vol.41, suppl.2, pp.1-10. ISSN 2076-3433.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15700/saje.v41ns2a2021.

In this this article we discuss findings from an investigation of whether female student teachers would choose to study mathematics if it were optional for primary teacher education in Malawi. A mixed methods research methodology was used to collect data through survey and focus group discussions (FGDs). Five hundred and twenty three female students from 6 public teacher education colleges completed a questionnaire, and 160 of them participated in FGDs. A descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on the quantitative data while a thematic analysis was conducted on the qualitative data. The findings show that 68% of female students would choose to study mathematics while 32% would not. This correlated with the students' mathematics scores at the end of their secondary school national examination. Those students with high score passes opted for mathematics and those with low score passes did not, suggesting that performance at secondary school influenced their confidence in studying mathematics. Female student teachers' reasons for choosing or not choosing mathematics were it optional are classified into 5 categories: the perceived usefulness of mathematics, inner motivation to study mathematics, the nature of the college mathematics content, how mathematics courses are taught at colleges, and gender stereotype in mathematics lessons. We discuss these in relation to the Malawian government's agenda of increasing participation of females in mathematics, science, technology, and engineering.

Keywords : female students; gender; Malawi; mathematics; primary teacher education.

        · text in English     · English ( pdf )

 

Creative Commons License All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License