Migrant Teachers’ Perceptions of the South African Mathematics Curriculum and Their Experiences in Teaching in the Host Country

Abstract

This article investigates the tensions experienced by Zimbabwean immigrant teachers in teaching mathematics in South Africa. It explores their views on the South African mathematics curriculum and how they are treated at their work stations. The study is significant because thousands of Zimbabwean mathematics and science teachers recently moved to teach in South Africa. To date, very little research has been done on how these teachers have settled at their new workplaces. Bernstein’s framework of curriculum classification and framing informs the study. Interviews were conducted on three Zimbabwean teachers who have been teaching mathematics in South African schools since 2008. To triangulate the data, a focus group interview was held with four teachers. The study showed that the teachers found it compulsive to compare some aspects of the South African curriculum with those from their home country. It showed that initially, the teachers had challenges in adapting to the new cuIrriculum, such as understanding the philosophy of continuous assessment. Although they meet some challenges at the beginning, in time some of the immigrant teachers adjust. They come to appreciate the strengths and merits of the South African mathematics curriculum. Implications for the study on immigrant teachers to the South African education system and the wider education community are suggested.

Introduction

The article explores the experiences and the resulting perceptions of Zimbabwean born and educated mathematics educational professionals working in South Africa. Having determined the teachers’ perceptions of the mathematics curriculum in South Africa, the article aims to explain and discuss how these perceptions shape their professional practice for them to adjust in their new workplaces. The article documents the challenges and opportunities the teachers have in their new schools.

The migration of people from one place of the earth to another has been perpetual in history. These days as in ancient times, people still move from one country to another for one reason or another. Even in the same country, rural–urban migration is a common phenomenon as people move to urban areas in search of a better life. Emigration and immigration are such an inherent part of humanity. In sub-Saharan Africa, for many years people have been migrating to the Southern African subcontinent particularly South Africa due to its economic success compared with the rest of Africa (Kok & Collinson, 2015; Vorster, 2002).

According to Landau and Wa Kabwe-Segatti (2009), people move to seek profit, protection, and the possibility of onward passage. Some people have moved to South Africa to stay for a short time, yet others have moved to stay permanently. As referred to earlier, for many decades unskilled workers came to work in South African mines and farms. Later, highly educated professionals such as Congolese doctors or mine engineers, and Zimbabwean teachers also came to work in South Africa. The teachers found employment in former homelands. Such professionals were absorbed in the South African labor system, but many others experienced severe downgrading of their skills when they arrived in South Africa due to lack of regularizing of their stay.

In a world where information is easily and rapidly available on the Internet, professionals with scarce skills move between countries to places where their expertise is in high demand and where they can earn a higher standard of living (Araujo & Rodríguez, 2015; Awases, Gbary, Nyoni, & Chatora, 2004; Chakma & Jensen, 2001). Besides employment, professionals also move to new countries to upgrade expertise in their fields of interest through higher studies or experience that they can draw from when they eventually return home. It is also common that professionals take along their children so that they acquire international education for the same reasons.

In South Africa, prior to 2008, very few Zimbabwean teachers were employed in the civil service. For years, Zimbabwean teachers in the country, fleeing economic hardships at home, were mainly employed in private colleges, which tend to pay lower salaries than the civil service. However, a critical shortage of mathematics and science teachers in the country brought a relief to the Zimbabwean teachers when the government considered to formerly employ them. The Department of Home Affairs began to issue work permits to mathematics and science foreign teachers (Statistics South Africa, 2008). That 2008 change in policy to regularize the stay of foreign teachers also helped to address the skills gap in the education sector. However, there were still thousands of other skilled professionals in the country who were unable to work or were underemployed due to lack of documents. For example, Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) protocols prohibited recruiting medical professionals from within the region.

Due to immigrant teachers’ lack of options for obtaining immigration documents, many used the asylum system as a “backdoor” to the South African job market. As the May 2008 violence against nonnationals so starkly illustrated, domestic and international mobility are full of risks to human security (Landau, 2012; Steenkamp, 2009). Despite xenophobia, South Africa may not meet its short- and long-term development targets without significant immigration of skilled and semiskilled labor including mathematics teachers.

The employment of immigrant teachers in South African schools inadvertently introduced new problems in education. These teachers had been educated and trained in and for another country in this case Zimbabwe. The context in which the teachers were now working was different. The curriculum they were expected to teach was different. The Zimbabwean teachers needed to learn and adapt to the new curriculum.

In doing so, it is inconceivable that the teachers did not compare the South African curriculum and how it is implemented with the familiar one in their home country. The teachers sought ways to adapt to the new curriculum to be effective in their new jobs. Also, how were the teachers perceived and treated in their new workplaces in a new country. This researcher felt that these phenomena need to be understood.

Research Questions

The research questions were as follows:

• Research Question 1: What perceptions do Zimbabwean migrant mathematics teachers hold on the South African mathematics curriculum?

• Research Question 2: How do the Zimbabwean mathematics teachers perceive the way they are treated in their schools?

Significance of the Study

This study is important as currently there are thousands of foreign mathematics teachers providing instruction in South Africa. Most of those teachers come from Zimbabwe, so this article focuses mainly on them. To date, very little research has been done to understand the problems that these teachers are facing. This study focuses on how the Zimbabwean immigrant teachers perceive the curriculum they are teaching. This is because perceptions affect behavior and action. The teachers’ perceptions affect their attitude on the curriculum and impacts on how they teach it. Furthermore, teachers’ perceptions on how they are viewed in their schools are important because the way the teachers feel on how they are treated affects their well-being. Well-being also impacts on teachers’ performance in their work. This study aimed to produce important knowledge about Zimbabwean mathematics teachers to education policy makers, school principals, and heads of departments on these issues. Findings of the study can help the education stakeholders on how best to harness the resource of Zimbabwean mathematics teachers to the best advantage of South African children. It may address ways to staff –develop the foreign teachers so that they understand what is expected of them and also feel at home. The study also hopes that dialogue between stakeholders and Zimbabwean mathematics teachers can be kick-started by this article.

Theoretical Framework

The researcher assumed Bernstein’s lens of a curriculum (Bertram, 2012; Hlengwa, 2010). Bernstein maintained that any curriculum can be viewed in terms of its classification and framing. According to Bernstein (2000), framing of the curriculum relates to the control that the teachers or learners have on the learning process, whereas classification relates to the extent that curricula subjects, for example, mathematics, stand distinct from each other or are integrated with them. Weak framing implies that teaching is heavily learner-centered and learner directed with teachers regarded as facilitators of the learning process rather than authoritative subject experts. Weak classification implies that the curriculum avoids overspecialization, and curricula subjects tend to overlap; the boundaries between different subject disciplines are indistinct and collapsed. There is greater subject integration and more linking. Such a curriculum is opposed to a strongly framed one in which there is strong differentiation among subjects. These subjects stand in isolated silos of specialist knowledge. Often, strong classification is allied to strong framing with teachers having strong subject-matter knowledge accompanied by strong teacher-directed lessons. With strong framing and strong classification, teachers have maximum control of what is learnt and how it is learnt. Learners have little autonomy and control if any on what they learn.

With regard to Bernstein’s framework, the South African mathematics curriculum may be seen as having weak framing and weak classification. In this case, learners have a greater voice in the learning of mathematics. For example, they negotiate with the teacher how they may be assessed, and group projects are useful in deciding the final grade for school leaving qualifications. Students are encouraged and expected to work in groups with little teacher guidance. The rather weaker content guidance by teachers in learning of mathematics has been regarded by some researchers as the academic underachievement trap in South Africa (Carnoy, Chilisa, & Chisholm, 2012) and that the best mathematics teachers in South Africa must have high mathematics content knowledge (Mji & Makgato, 2006; Modiba, 2011; Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Arora, 2012), not just good methodology.

The researcher regards the Zimbabwean mathematics curriculum as based on strong framing and strong classification (Bernstein, 2000). For example, preservice mathematics teachers do study mathematics in greater breadth and depth before graduating. Often, the students who intend to be specialist mathematics teachers study mathematics to the exclusion of other curricula subjects, except for theory of education. This contrasts with South African preservice teachers who though specializing in mathematics also study an array of other subjects such as languages, social sciences, and so on, presumably to help prepare them for subject integration that the curriculum requires. In addition, while at high school Matric students can study up to seven subjects, in Zimbabwe, Advanced-level students are expected to study at most three subjects. They are expected to study a curriculum of a group of three subjects in sciences, commercials, or arts. Thus, the classification and framing of mathematics curriculum in Zimbabwe and South Africa appear different at first. The researcher assumed that this difference may be important to Zimbabwean teachers teaching in South Africa and would initially produce tension to them. The theoretical framework is relevant to the research because whether a teacher was educated in a setup with a certain framing and classification has a bearing on their perceptions of whether a mathematics curriculum is relevant or not.

Philosophically, Curriculum 2005 hinged on the constructivist philosophy of learning (Henson, 2015; von Glasersfeld, 1989) and of mathematics (Ernest, 1991). Mathematics was viewed not as some mythical phenomena but as a normal human activity (National Curriculum Statement, 2011). In the teaching and learning of mathematics, teachers facilitated and guided student-centered lessons that aimed at learners constructing mathematical knowledge (Hatano, 1996). On the contrary, the Zimbabwean curriculum has an absolutist (Ernest, 1991) bias. In the absolutist realm, teachers are required to be authorities in directing and marshaling learners to acquire an already existing body of knowledge that the teacher knows. Thus, while the South African curriculum regards mathematics in a multiversal and multivocal way (Cobb & Bauersfeld, 1995), the Zimbabwean mathematics curriculum assumes a universal and univocal view of mathematics that each learner must aim to attain. So the Zimbabwean curriculum is more centralized, whereas the South African one is more democratic. The two then differ; the South African mathematics curriculum emphasizes on social connected knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986) that is “taken as shared” (Voigt, 1995, p. 203) at social cognition level (Godorn-Calvert, 2001). This is demonstrated by the critical and developmental outcome of capability of learners to work and learn in groups. The Zimbabwean curriculum emphasizes on separate knowing (Belenky et al., 1986) at individual cognition level (Godorn-Calvert, 2001). The researcher presumed that these different emphases in the two curricula would inevitably produce tension in Zimbabwean teachers teaching a South African mathematics curriculum.

Method

Three Zimbabwean educated teachers working in South Africa, two females and one male, were interviewed. One woman teacher taught in a small town in the North-West Province, and the other lady teacher taught in an urban mission school in Pretoria, Gauteng. The male teacher taught at a rural secondary school in the Limpopo Province. Data were collected from teachers through formal and deep informal interviews. The interviews were semistructured. The structured part involved the teachers’ demographical characteristics. The unstructured part involved questions meant to probe the similarities and differences felt by teachers between the two mathematics curricula, regarding its implementation, and its assessment. The interviews also sought to find out what that teachers did to impact on the teaching and learning of mathematics and how the teachers were perceived and treated in their schools.

The data collected from these teachers were by no means representative of South Africa’s migrant Zimbabwean mathematics teachers. This is itself was not important as this was a qualitative study meant to explore and describe the experiences (Bryman, 2004) of the teachers. The researcher believes that there could be at least 4,000 Zimbabwean mathematics teachers working in South Africa. This number also includes some highly educated Zimbabwean mathematics practitioners working and studying in South African universities. Even though this sample was tiny, the researcher believed that it provided critical illustrations of trends and points where mathematics teacher migration and education in South Africa intersect. A convenience sampling of the three teachers was used. The teachers whom the author knew already from Zimbabwe and who were familiar acquaintances to him provided the data.

To sum up and triangulate the data collected, a focus group interview was done. The group contained four teachers, two men and two women purposively and conveniently sampled from schools in the Johannesburg Metropolitan. These were postgraduate mathematics education students studying at the institution where this author works. During the discussions, these teachers who also are immigrant mathematics teachers agreed with the findings in the research. They were of the opinion that the representations were valid and in general fairly reflected the situation on the ground.

The reader needs to understand that the study is a snippet of what is happening to the migrant teachers in the sample as to their perception of the curriculum they are teaching, how they perceive they are being treated by their hosts, and how they have settled in their new work stations. These issues are important to consider together to find how well these teachers are assimilating. While they can be studied differently, the author felt it sensible to handle them together in this study. The author argues that how teachers view the curriculum they are teaching and how they feel they are treated at their workplaces has a bearing on that effectiveness.

For ethical reasons and also to increase reliability of the research, the three teachers were assured that their anonymity will be respected and that their responses will be strictly confidential. They were assured that their responses would be strictly for research purposes and that the research did not mean at all to invade their personal privacy. They were assured that their opinions will be respected and that there was no wrong or right answer. In author’s view, the teachers offered well-informed consent that their views may be published in an educational journal.

Results

Two telephonic and one face-to-face interviews were held with three teachers, here called Rudo, Nomsa, and Tawanda for anonymity.

First Teacher: Rudo

Rudo is a middle-aged teacher. She holds a certificate in education from a secondary teachers’ college in Zimbabwe. She graduated in the late mid-1980s. She also holds a B.Tech from Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria. She came to South Africa in 2008 to teach mathematics on a quota work permit. She has 24 years of experience in teaching mathematics at secondary school: 20 in Zimbabwe and four in the North-West Province. She currently teaches mathematics at Grades 7, 8, and 9 at a middle school.

Perception of the curriculum

Rudo reported that she is confused about the Grade 7 mathematics curriculum in South Africa. She felt that the Grade 7 curriculum is at the level of Form 1 in Zimbabwe, the first class at secondary school there. For example, she said that the topic Directed Numbers is taught at Grade 7, whereas that topic is taught in Form 1 in Zimbabwe. Number sense concepts such as prime numbers and multiples are also taught at Grade 7. Geometric concepts such as polygons and angles covered at Grade 7 here in South Africa are actually covered in Form 1 in Zimbabwe. The teacher also reported that in spite of teaching for 4 years in South Africa, she was in total confusion whether Grade 7 falls under secondary school or in primary school. She said in some cases, Grade 7 is found in primary schools, in some cases it is found in middle schools that run from Grades 1 to 9, and yet in some cases Grade 7 is the first class at some secondary schools.

Overall, she thought that the South African mathematics curriculum is quite good, but it is hard for the students. “Some students held some very dangerously formed mathematics concepts and skills,” she said. For example, she said some of her students reported that their teachers taught them that when they add fractions they must add numerators and denominators separately. She felt that her learners seemed to have been taught at lower grades by teachers who themselves did not understand the mathematics they taught. Rudo said it was almost impossible to de-teach such misconceptions as learners were resistant to instruction meant to dislodge such misconceptions.

Perception on assessment

Rudo said the assessment techniques in South Africa were very different from those in Zimbabwe. In South Africa, there was formal continuous assessment, whereas in Zimbabwe, there was no formal continuous assessment. She said that students are given formal and informal assessment tasks. Some of the formal assessment tasks were open to cheating as they are done without the teachers’ supervision. Students could do projects at home individually or in groups. In such cases, some learners could have other people do the projects for them. Students then submitted those and obtained high marks yet they knew very little. These marks were are also used together with tests and examination marks to come up with the Grade 12 mark they were awarded by Umalusi for their Senior School Certificate. The teacher felt that this mark at most times was not a true reflection of the learner’s mastery and competence of mathematics.

She said that lack of competency in mathematics is clearly demonstrated when her students write tests and examinations. They fail these yet they do very well in projects.

Rudo reported that students needed and demanded the scope of tests and examinations before they write; otherwise, they dismally fail. She reported that students sometimes complained that they cannot be assessed for the whole term’s work. “To test us for the whole term is too much,” students say. This scenario she reflected is different from the Zimbabwean one where it was not necessary to give the examination or test’s scope as students were conditioned to expect anything in a test or examination as long as they previously studied it with their teacher. To do well, Rudo stressed that her students needed a lot of support and guidance from her. She said that it was necessary to push and spoon-feed them. However, she reported that there are time constraints, and it was not always possible to do that. She said that students do not know simple formulae to calculate areas and volumes of simple figures. She reported that her students could not do simple calculations without using calculators. “If they do not use the calculator, they will be disaster,” she exclaimed. Again, she pointed out that this was a major difference from the Zimbabwean scenario where students are expected to know by heart multiplication tables up to 12 × 12 by the time they arrive at Grade 6! She said that her South African students are not familiar with long multiplication and division algorithms. She said that the students are not trained to memorize mathematical facts; they find it hard to retain what they have learnt and easily forgot what they have been taught. She said her students had poor listening skills.

The teacher felt that mathematical literacy includes everyday arithmetic or consumer arithmetic which is already included in Zimbabwe’s mathematics curriculum. She felt that learners found it hard to link it with everyday life, for example, topics like electricity charges and taxes. She felt that mathematical literacy has a lot of reading, so many learners do not perform well because of language difficulties.

Rudo lamented that students in the most did not get any academic support from parents as parents report that they did never did any mathematics themselves and know nothing about the subject. Many students are reported to be living with single parents mainly mothers and grandparents, so they do not get any academic support from home.

Perception on discipline

Rudo lamented that her students were not motivated. She said their own interests distracted them. There was no corporal punishment, and even some form of verbal admonishing could lead the teacher in trouble. Even principals were not allowed to administer corporal punishment to learners, unlike in Zimbabwe where school heads were allowed to administer corporal punishment for gross indiscipline and negligence of work. “Discipline is a very big problem,” Rudo said. She thought that it was because students knew that no one will punish them. Sometimes students continued to refuse to do formal assignments. She said some even say “Isayi zero” that is to say in chiShona, a Zimbabwean language, “record zero” for that assignment!

Perception and treatment of Zimbabwean mathematics teachers

Rudo reported that the Zimbabwean teachers are treated as foreigners at every turn. There were regarded with little respect. The Zimbabwean teachers were given little advantages at work. When they were given contracts, it was never clear how long they will last. Sometimes it was only for three months. She said renewal of contracts was full of problems and takes a long time. All the time, the Zimbabwean teachers had to fight to be paid. Also teachers who had only Zimbabwean Teachers’ College diplomas were very lowly paid.

Despite these perceptions, she commented that Zimbabwean mathematics teachers are appreciated as highly knowledgeable, professional, and hardworking. In most cases, initial resistance to them was overcome and some were even appointed as heads of mathematics departments.

Second Teacher: Tawanda

This Zimbabwean teacher is middle-aged and has been teaching mathematics at secondary school for 22 years of which four have been in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Tawanda holds a secondary teachers’ diploma, a B.Ed. in mathematics education, and a master’s in curriculum studies from the University of Zimbabwe. He came to South Africa in 2008 on a quota permit to teach mathematics. He has been teaching Grades 11 and 12 at his current school since then.

Perceptions on the mathematics curriculum

Tawanda felt that the South African syllabus is a bit limited in terms of depth and coverage. He felt that there was a glaring absence of topics such as Integral Calculus at Grade 12. Differentiation was also treated superficially as concepts such as chain rule, product rule, and quotient rule were not covered. Also the implicit differentiation and differential equations were not done, as were matrices and vectors. Mechanics was done but again at a superficial level.

However, the South African syllabus had the important topic of Financial Math dealing with annuities. Tawanda felt that the South African curriculum outshined the Zimbabwean one on this aspect. Also sequences were treated somewhat differently in South Africa. For example, the quadratic sequence was analytically done here, whereas in Zimbabwe, it was never taught. However, he felt that the Zimbabwean syllabus was much more rigorous than the South African syllabus in all the topics it covered. He said that the South African curriculum was more predictable, and low order as it just needs manipulation of formulae. He reported that on the topic transformations, shears were not done. Transformations were treated more implicitly than in the Zimbabwe syllabus. For example, enlargements were studied in the contexts of similar triangles and stretches were studied in the contexts of functions such as f(x) = 2sinx.

The teacher felt that removing transformations and linear programming in the outgoing math curriculum in South Africa and replacing them with Euclidean proofs and probability was unnecessary as all the topics were important in the syllabus.

He viewed the introduction of mathematical literacy in the South African curriculum as a very appropriate curriculum innovation. Tawanda recommended that the same be introduced in Zimbabwe. He said that the examples used in mathematical literacy were very contemporary and appropriate.

The teacher said he found it very difficult to adapt to the South African curriculum. He said that students in rural areas of South Africa did not appreciate education. They were not motivated to learn. He felt that Mathematics is a rigorous subject which needs self-motivation and drive. In general, he felt that in spite of what he had said, the mathematics curriculum of South Africa was okay, but the main problems lay in implementing it.

Perception on assessment

He said that while in Zimbabwe, it is mainly summative, in South Africa there is also great weight given to continuous assessment. He said the problem is that some students do not participate in the group work, but the principle was okay. It could also be applied in Zimbabwe.

Perception and treatment of Zimbabwean mathematics teachers

Tawanda observed that the Zimbabwean teachers are generally viewed as competent but are criticized for failure to instill discipline in learners. The Zimbabwean teachers are seen as having no hold over learners. He said his hands are tied in disciplining his students. He sometimes asked for administration to help with the discipling of students, but sometimes it did not work.

Also, initially the South African community had a low opinion of Zimbabwean teachers, but with time, they appreciated them because of their teaching ability.

Third Teacher: Nomsa

Nomsa has a BSc from a U.K. university and a graduate certificate in education. She holds an M.Phil. in education from the University of Zimbabwe and is a mathematics education PhD student in a South African university. Nomsa has been teaching mathematics in South Africa for the past 6 years first at a Pretoria middle-income Black suburb and then at an urban mission school in the same city. She has been teaching mathematics for close to 30 years.

Perceptions on the mathematics curriculum

Nomsa’s perception is that the South African mathematics curriculum does not offer enough room for her to adapt so that she can teach mathematics properly. She reported that the South African curriculum is broad but shallow, as, for example, in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document, linear programming was being left out now. She said that the assessment standards in the curriculum policy documents tended to be overlapping and confusing. She complained that the grades that students are awarded at Matric do not accurately mirror learners’ true abilities in mathematics as some of the marks are obtained from group work. So the assessment gives a wrong impression about what students can do, she said. “It overestimates what they actually are capable of doing individually,” she said. So students often fail the examination component but still pass the subject because of the continuous assessment mark. She said that the critical and developmental outcome for students to work in groups is achieved, but that goes along with individual student’s academic impoverishment.

Perception and treatment of Zimbabwean mathematics teachers

Oftentimes, Nomsa complained that her professional expertise in mathematics teaching has been greatly undermined and unappreciated at the two schools she taught. She was at times asked to teach Religious Education from Grades 8 to 10 instead of mathematics. At that time, she was denied to teach mathematics, which is her specialist area. She felt that it downgraded her as a true ability in a critical subject with a shortage of manpower in South Africa was not taken into consideration. She felt that she had no voice in the school. At the time this article was written, Nomsa was deciding to leave teaching in South Africa altogether and return home to Zimbabwe because of the frustrations she was having in the schools she had taught.

Focus Group Interview

The teachers indicated that at times rude jokes are made at them such as “. . . oh I know, you are the ones who come from that place where you throw children in the water” or “. . . you come from an area of fat people.” The four teachers indicated that despite their expertise, they were given a common name. They were called “Makwerekwere,” a derogatory name obtained from Shona, a Zimbabwean indigenous language that has many words sounding with the letter “k” of the alphabet, unlike most South African languages. The teachers said that in many cases, they ignore these insinuations or make a joke of them.

All the teachers agreed that the South African mathematics curriculum tended to be limited in its content coverage of mathematics than the Zimbabwean. However, they also thought that the South African mathematics curriculum was much more conceptual than the Zimbabwean, for example, in dealing with the function topic. The Zimbabwean was seen now as being rather too procedural, emphasizing in many cases remembering how to use formulae correctly, such as the long cosine and sine formulae at Ordinary level.

Three of the four teachers felt that they are generally taken as stopgap employees who should always be ready to vacate their employment should a qualified South African teacher become available. However, these conditions changed as the migrant teacher obtained permanent residence or citizenship; then they could be employed permanently. But the teachers also felt that they enjoyed much higher salary and benefits than they had at home and that their lifestyles had improved as a result of staying in South Africa.

Discussions

The interviews show that teachers experienced tension in adapting to a new curriculum which had weak framing and classification (Bernstein, 2000) as well as a multiversal and multivocal way (Cobb & Bauersfeld, 1995). This may not be surprising because the Zimbabwean teachers came from a country where the curriculum has strong framing and classification akin to separate knowing (Belenky et al., 1986) at individual cognition level (Godorn-Calvert, 2001). For example, all the three teachers implied that it was unfair to include continuous assessment marks for summative purposes. This meant that they did not want the learning of mathematics to be controlled by the learners. They felt that helping each other in assessed work did not give a fair account of what an individual learner can do alone, which they felt was the correct work that must be assessed for a student. They wanted all the control themselves.

The mathematics teachers in the sample first felt perplexed by differences in the two mathematics education systems to which they struggled to cope. The findings were several. At policy level, they discovered that in South Africa, the mathematics curriculum is prepared by the Department of Education (DoE; 2002) as documented in the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), in which learning outcomes and assessment standards are spelt out. This is quite different from the General Certificate of Education (GCE) “O” level and “A” level syllabuses produced by the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) which mainly specifies the content coverage from year to year. The teachers also indicated the differences in content coverage and depth, as well as assessment methods. Teachers gave examples of how they assimilated into their schools, and the strategies they used to dissociate themselves from old Zimbabwean practices to fit into their schools. This helped them to improve mathematics teaching and learning at their current stations.

The impression from interviews with the teachers is that while in general, their professional competences are highly regarded, oftentimes, the teachers are not given due respect. The teachers feel that because they come from a country with a struggling economy, their abilities and professionalism are regarded as correlated to that. They feel that this is a gross misjudgment as they feel that they have a lot to offer to the South African mathematics education landscape that they seem to be having a lot of challenges. For example, the teachers are shocked that students display glaring misconceptions of mathematical concepts (Makonye & Luneta, 2014; Carnoy et al., 2012; Modiba, 2011). When asked, the students refer to the fact that they were taught such by their previous teachers. The Zimbabwean teachers feel that they have an important role to play as they have identified a gap in the South African school system. Teachers feel that they are competent to fill that gap. Despite that, some local people do not think so; they feel that the immigrant teachers are taking over jobs meant for locals.

Despite the fact that Zimbabwean educated teachers in South Africa note that the mathematics curriculum in these two countries is different, they have come to appreciate the South African curriculum and believe that if it is implemented properly it can still go a long way to achieve commendable learner competency in mathematics.

While the South African mathematics curriculum assumes the constructivist or fallibilist philosophy of mathematics (Ernest, 1991), it would appear that the Zimbabwean philosophy of mathematics is traditional and absolutist (Ernest, 1991). This difference in the philosophy of mathematics of necessity determines how mathematical knowledge is regarded and taught in the two countries. This has a bearing of what teachers educated in the two countries hold of what constitutes effective mathematics teaching and learning.

Conclusion

The study aimed to study the experiences and perceptions of Zimbabwean mathematics teachers on the South African mathematics curriculum in which they are now working as immigrants teachers. The study was undertaken on three Zimbabwean mathematics teachers. The teachers regard the South African mathematics curriculum as different, but not substantially different from that in their home country of Zimbabwe. The differences are mainly on curriculum coverage and depth. The teachers believe that the South African curriculum has more room to improve on those aspects. The teachers also felt that group assessment as well as project work whose marks are constituted in summative assessment had some disadvantages. The teachers argued that some learners could be passengers in the group work. This resulted in them being awarded marks that are not commensurate with their levels of participation in the projects. Such marks tended not to reflect the true achievements or capabilities of the learners needed to assess their suitability to further education or employment. However, the teachers consent that the working together fostered by the South African curriculum is a vital component absent from the Zimbabwean mathematics curriculum.

As for how they are treated, the teachers believe that most education stakeholders appreciate their contributions, yet there is still a section of people who mistreat and discriminate them because they are foreigners, as exemplified by 2008 (see Steenkamp, 2009) and 2015 xenophobic attacks. They realize that working in a foreign country cannot always be a bed of roses. The study shows that despite these challenges, the Zimbabwean teachers are making an impact in the improvement of mathematics teaching and learning in South Africa.

Limitations

This was a qualitative study performed on a small sample of four participants. It would have been a good thing to do a quantitative study that involves hundreds of immigrant mathematics teachers with varying qualifications sampled from geographical areas of the country. This would have given a much complete picture on this research. However, limitations such as funding would not allow that. The study therefore does not aim to generalize the findings because nonprobability sampling was used. The study aims to generate further research on the conditions of (mathematics) migrant teachers in South Africa. Also, it would have been a good idea to establish the views of South African teachers on immigrant teachers teaching in South Africa. The author believes that could be a separate research which can be pursued in the future. Despite these limitations, the author believes that this research is significant, because no previous research on these immigrant teachers have been done from 2008 when their employment was regularized by the government. It gives a window into understanding how these teachers are functioning in their new work stations.

Recommendations

The study shows that Zimbabwean mathematics teachers in South Africa arrive in the country with fairly strong preset conceptions on the teaching of mathematics. This study shows that most of these teachers are in a state of anxiety as such perceptions are not always well received in the new environment. The author recommends that the South African Department of Basic Education launch induction and orientation programs for newly employed foreign teachers. Such programs would help the new teachers to learn not only about the South African mathematics curriculum and how it is taught but also about the history and culture of the country, the languages, and the diversity in the country. This will help the new teachers to understand and appreciate the problems in the South African education landscape. Also, the author strongly recommends that the Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa must be humble enough to learn about a country that has given them employment opportunities and accept that they need South Africa as much as it needs them. They must refrain from the I know it all syndrome, because their knowledge could be limited.

For Further Research

The author recommends a quantitative study to be performed on a much larger sample. It might be helpful to use the Survey Monkey research design where as many migrant (mathematics) teachers can fill the questionnaire which can be analyzed with statistical software. The author hopes that a more complete picture on the research problem raised in this study can be obtained.