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Mathematics teachers’ perceptions of soft skills integration are key to ensuring students’ soft skills development. The present study investigated perceptions regarding the integration of soft skills in teaching and learning mathematics in Mazabuka District in Zambia. Ninety-one teachers, who were selected purposively, completed a questionnaire and a test on the integration of soft skills in teaching and learning mathematics. Frequencies, means, and standard deviations were calculated, and independent sample t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. The findings are that mathematics teachers had a positive perception of soft skills integration in mathematics and believed that incorporating soft skills in teaching and learning mathematics was important. Furthermore, the results reveal that mathematics teachers’ gender and age, the type of school where they taught, their experience and level of education did not influence their perceptions of soft skills integration in mathematics teaching and learning in Zambian secondary schools.

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This paper comparatively analysed policy documents and peer-reviewed papers regarding the integration of soft skills in Mathematics taught in secondary schools in Kenya, Rwanda, and Zambia. The analysis highlights how the curricula for Kenya, Rwanda, and Zambia were revised, how soft skills were integrated and assessed in Mathematics and how Mathematics teachers were prepared to integrate soft skills in the teaching and learning of Mathematics. The review has shown that the three countries acknowledge Mathematics as one of the subjects in which soft skills should be integrated. Additionally, the three countries have a common understanding that the integration of soft skills requires changes in pedagogical and assessment approaches. However, the literature reviewed from the three countries indicates that there is very little data available highlighting the integration and assessment of soft skills in Mathematics as well as how mathematics teachers were prepared. This lack of adequate information on the integration and assessment of softs kills points to the fact that these skills may not be integrated in the teaching and learning of Mathematics which could lead to producing secondary school graduates, who are not creative, innovative, critical thinkers and problems solvers. The paper, therefore recommends that researchers should explore the challenges related to the deficiency in policy focus by the three countries on the integration of soft skills in  Mathematics.

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