Continuing the Conversation: Reflections on Five Years of Primary Numeracy Research in South Africa

Abstract

The chapters in this volume are written largely by early career researchers, many of whom draw on studies carried out toward the award of a PhD. Encouraging is the evidence provided here of these researchers not being content merely to build on research conducted in other parts of the world, much of such research coming from contexts that resemble what Graven and Venkat (Chap. 2, this volume) refer to as the ‘functioning system’ in South Africa—the education accessed by the wealthy minority. In learning from, building on and adapting theories and findings from research carried out in more favorable circumstances, the researchers here do not take these as ‘givens,’ which somehow have to take on board by schools in South Africa’s second system—the ‘dysfunctional’ one (to use Graven and Venkat’s term) that serves the majority of learners living in relative poverty. Not only has history shown that such adoptionist approaches are doomed to failure but also that such approaches can be ethically and politically misguided. No, solutions to the problems of mathematics education in South Africa have to address and grow out of work in South Africa, a stance strongly embraced by the writers here. Even if only in their early years of a career as a researcher (which I sincerely hope those who are go on to pursue) their writing shows that they are not afraid to take a stance with regard to the experts from elsewhere, to be constructively critical and to develop the research conversations into which they are entering in ways that are firmly grounded in the realities of primary mathematics in South African classrooms.