What teacher educators consider as best practices in preparing pre-service teachers for teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms
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Date
2010
Authors
Essien, Anthony A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
This paper reports on an investigation into what teacher educators consider to be best practices in how to
prepare pre-service teachers to effectively deal with the challenges of teaching Mathematics in multilingual
contexts, and how what teacher educators consider as best practices inform their own classroom practice.
Twelve teacher educators (TEs) from four universities in a province in South Africa participated in the
study. Through a qualitative analysis of the interviews, five practices emerged as best practices for these
teacher educators: the use of code switching, the creation of an environment of trust in the classroom, the
use of one (rather than two) medium of instruction, namely English, the use of linguistic metaphors that
the languages present in the class potentially provide for use in mathematics, and, finally, the creation
of an awareness of the multilingual context in which pre-service teachers would teach at the end of their
qualification. Given that most teachers in South Africa teach in multilingual classrooms and teacher
education research on mathematics education has not, thus far, focused on multilingual mathematics
education, it is hoped that these five practices would serve as an inducement for both teacher educators
and researchers alike. The author also cautions against the adoption of imported practices from other
countries and argues that in delineating practices that are more likely to work in the South African context,
it is important to bear in mind the distinctive nature of multilingualism in South Africa.
Description
Keywords
Multilingual mathematics education, Teacher educators, Pre-service teachers, Classroom practice
Citation
Essien, A. A. (2010). What teacher educators consider as best practices in preparing pre-service teachers for teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms. Perspectives in Education, 28(4), 32-42.