Teacher–Textbook Relationships in Mathematics in Contexts of Limited Resources

Abstract

This paper examines how seven teachers working in contexts of limited resources used the prescribed textbook for teaching, and the kinds of teacher-textbook relationships forged in the interactions. The study employs a sociocultural perspective to explore the processes by which teachers mobilise the affordances of the textbook to the teacher's practice, thereby advancing a particular way for studying and understanding better the teacher-textbook relationships in particular contexts. A methodological approach aggregating results for all teachers and looking for patterns of mobilisation across teachers allowed for the analysis of patterns of mobilisation regardless of the teacher. Findings point to generally tacit use of the textbook and a need for intervention on textbook use by teachers. The study makes recommendations for the production of educative guides as well as further research on the perceived role of the textbook in the teacher's practice.

Levering change: the contributory role of a mathematics teaching framework

“…Thembi, one of the teachers, captures key findings from this work: What I have learned … is not only about my teaching and the strategies I use, but it is about giving them [learners] Mary, and many others, explicitly pointed to more deliberate use of her textbook, particularly with selection of examples, and thus of using it in more educative ways supported by the MTF. This evidences greater relational transparency between the teachers and their available resources, and an improvement of the teacher-curriculum resources relationship found by Leshota (2020). A further contributory role of the MTF as expressed by both Thembi and Mary was towards lesson coherence.…”

“…-The teacher-textbook relationship A qualitative study on teachers' mobilisation of the affordances of the textbook informed the intervention and MTF use (Leshota, 2020). The study was motivated by our observations of incoherent teaching coupled with a sense that teachers were working haphazardly rather than deliberately with the prescribed textbooks available in their schools.…”

“…Patricia identified strongly with exemplifying in the MTF as she could control her selections. She constructed example sets from available curriculum texts deliberately inserting additional and pertinent variations-productive insertions in Leshota's (2020) terms. As Patricia selected ordered pairs for points on the Cartesian plane, and asked learners about the quadrants in which they were located, she included points on the axes.…”

“…The complex and dialectic relationship between mathematics teachers and the resources in their practice has been elaborated through extensive research over the past two decades (Choppin et al, 2018;Fan et al, 2018;Gueudet & Trouche, 2009;Leshota, 2020;Pepin et al, 2013;Remillard, 2005;Remillard & Kim, 2020;Rezat & Strasser, 2012;Trouche et al, 2019). Frameworks conceptualising resources in teacher education (Adler, 2000) and as levers of educational change (Venkat & Graven, 2017) have extended how we think about each arm of the teacher-resource relationship.…”

The Utilisation of Textbook in Teaching and Learning Mathematics among Primary School Mathematics Teachers

“…This situation is similar to the high dependency on the use of mathematics textbooks in Estonia (Lepik, 2015). At the same time, the previous study of (Fan et al, 2013;Johansson, 2003;Leshota, 2020) also highlighted high reliability between the use of textbook and lesson preparing process.…”