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Advocating Linked Research and Development in the Primary Mathematics Education Landscape in Contexts of Poverty

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Improving Primary Mathematics Education, Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This chapter explores the specific rationales for a focus on numeracy, as well as the urgent need for interventions that are both located in, and build up, a research base that can support well-theorised change. It addresses some of the limitations that have been noted as emanating from university-based research that is frequently criticised for its distance from ‘on-the-ground’ realities on the one hand, and, on the other, NGO development activities that fail to build a rigorous and cumulative knowledge base, and where effective, have produced largely small-scale, localised and non-reproducible gains. Aspects relating to primary mathematics development in South African and international contexts marked by disadvantage are introduced and concluding comments note an advocacy for the emergent, linked research and development model as an ethical necessity in under-resourced contexts.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Mellony Graven

  2. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Hamsa Venkat

Authors
  1. Mellony Graven
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  2. Hamsa Venkat
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Education Department, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Mellony Graven

  2. School of Education, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Hamsa Venkat

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Graven, M., Venkat, H. (2017). Advocating Linked Research and Development in the Primary Mathematics Education Landscape in Contexts of Poverty. In: Graven, M., Venkat, H. (eds) Improving Primary Mathematics Education, Teaching and Learning. Palgrave Studies in Excellence and Equity in Global Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52980-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52980-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-52979-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52980-0

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