Socio-cultural factors: a missing variable in mathematics pedagogy in Ghana

Abstract

This study draws on theories relating to the local aspects of mathematical knowledge and to mathematics pedagogy to explore how the teaching and learning activities carried out in mathematics classrooms in Ghana deal with these aspects. It focussed on the teaching of measurement of money at the primary school level. The primary school level was considered in this study because it is during this period of time that pupils develop the foundation for learning mathematics at higher grade levels. The current Ghanaian primary school mathematics curriculum, three of the popular primary school mathematics textbooks, and lessons from two experienced primary school teachers constituted the main sources of data for the study. The data collected were analysed qualitatively and presented as narrative description with some illustrative examples. The study revealed amongst others that the approaches used by teachers in the lessons observed reflected those suggested in mathematics curriculum and the textbooks, and these approaches pay very little attention to the social and cultural contexts of the pupils. By way of recommendation the authors provide an alternative approach to the teaching of measurement of money in context, based on a three-tier teaching strategy.