While investigating South African high school Mathematics teachers’ perceptions about the skill of estimation, unexpected data emerged surrounding teachers’ perceptions about their learners. Themes that emerged from the data indicate that teachers have the power to disrupt the status quo, and to begin preparing their learners to powerfully engage with the world outside the classroom.
The social construction of classroom dynamics has been discussed for decades, with bell hooks (1994) suggesting that often, children carry their inferiority complexes into classrooms, therefore forming mental blocks against learning. However, as Freire (1970) posed, classrooms can be liberatory spaces where learning is achieved by engaging all learners in the collaborative exercise of learning. This paper reflects on how teachers can reconceptualise Maths classrooms as spaces for facilitating learning by adjusting their perceptions about who they are teaching.
The research project, set in South Africa, used semi-structured interviews, a WhatsApp group, and focus groups to explore teachers’ perceptions and usage of mathematical estimation in their classrooms. The sample spanned the socio-economic spectrum of the country and worked with 9 teachers. The research project yielded results relating to the initial research questions but also raised other important questions about the social construction of classroom spaces.
The idea of teachers teaching ‘future leaders’ emerged unexpectedly in a focus group of three teachers. One of the research participants presented the idea of equipping learners to face the ‘real world’ and ‘solve real problems’ with the mathematical knowledge they were being taught in school; the participant suggested that learners are, in fact, ‘future leaders’ who need to be taught accordingly. This unanticipated response prompted further discussions with other participants about the role of Maths teaching in schools and the life-skills that can be imparted through the syllabus. However, most importantly, teachers offered profound reflections on how their perceptions of their learners impacted their pedagogy and praxis. These reflections aligned with theories posed by hooks (1994) and Freire (1970): themes that emerged from the data highlight the importance addressing injustices in the classroom by giving students a voice, offering them unique opportunities to ask and answer their own questions, and to design classroom experiences that enable them to become ‘future leaders’. This research project produced results that probe the possibility of using formal education settings to unpick economic and social injustices through effective facilitation of learning by teachers who are in tune with the needs of their learners.