Preparing students for society from a mathematical point of view

Abstract

Mathematics teaching plays a crucial role in preparing students for the current and future society (OECD, 2018). Whether mathematics teaching in the classrooms actually has the same focus is unclear. We therefore investigate the following research question: How do primary school teachers prepare students for society in their mathematics teaching practice? In a survey with open-ended questions with 32 teachers and interviews with three teachers, primary school teachers were presented with several situations relevant to functioning in society. Teachers were asked to describe how their teaching – without explicitly referring to mathematics – prepares students for handling these situations. In our analysis we labeled and categorized when and how teachers in their responses refer to their mathematics teaching. From our results emerged that teachers only refer to mathematics teaching in obvious cases when a mathematical content domain was foregrounded. Interestingly, the interviews elicited more references to mathematics teaching, probably due to the interviewer asking follow-up questions focused hereon. We therefore conclude that realizing how mathematics teaching prepares students for society might need expert scaffolding.