IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/injoed/v41y2015icp121-130.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What do we know about primary teachers’ mathematical content knowledge in South Africa? An analysis of SACMEQ 2007

Author

Listed:
  • Venkat, Hamsa
  • Spaull, Nic

Abstract

There is consensus in the international mathematics teacher education literature that teachers should, at the most basic level, have mastery of the content knowledge they are required to teach. In this paper we test this assumption empirically by analyzing the South African SACMEQ 2007 mathematics teacher test data which tested 401 grade 6 mathematics teachers from a nationally representative sample of primary schools. With items matched to curriculum grade bands, findings indicate that 79% of grade 6 mathematics teachers showed content knowledge levels below the grade 6/7 band, and that the few teachers with higher-level content knowledge are highly inequitably distributed.

Suggested Citation

  • Venkat, Hamsa & Spaull, Nic, 2015. "What do we know about primary teachers’ mathematical content knowledge in South Africa? An analysis of SACMEQ 2007," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 121-130.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:41:y:2015:i:c:p:121-130
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2015.02.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059315000152
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2015.02.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Servaas van der Berg & Cobus Burger & Ronelle Burger & Mia de Vos & Gideon du Rand & Martin Gustafsson & Eldridge Moses & Debra Shepherd & Nicholas Spaull & Stephen Taylor & Hendrik van Broekhuizen & , 2011. "Low quality education as a poverty trap," Working Papers 25/2011, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Servaas Van Der Berg & Heleen Hofmeyr, 2018. "Education in South Africa," World Bank Publications - Reports 30017, The World Bank Group.
    3. Nicholas Spaull, 2012. "Poverty & Privilege: Primary School Inequality in South Africa," Working Papers 13/2012, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    4. Stephen Taylor, 2011. "Uncovering indicators of effective school management in South Africa using the National School Effectiveness Study," Working Papers 10/2011, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabrielle Wills & Debra Shepherd & Janeli Kotze, 2016. "Interrogating a Paradox of Performance in the WCED: A Provincial and Regional Comparison of Student Learning," Working Papers 14/2016, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Christiansen, Iben & Bertram, Carol, 2019. "Early schooling teachers’ learning from a formal teacher development programme in South Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 78-87.
    3. Nicholas Spaull, 2016. "Disentangling the language effect in South African schools: Measuring the impact of ‘language of assessment’ in grade 3 literacy and numeracy," Working Papers 19/2016, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    4. Chris van Wyk, 2015. "An overview of Education data in South Africa: an inventory approach," Working Papers 19/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    5. Lieschen Venter & Theresa Viljoen, 2020. "A Systems Perspective on School Improvement with a Focus on Teachers," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 265-293, June.
    6. Oscar David Marcenaro‐Gutierrez & Luis Alejandro Lopez‐Agudo, 2020. "Does Teacher Subject Knowledge Contribute to Student Academic Performance in Developing and Least Developed Countries?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 88(3), pages 267-297, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gabrielle Wills & Servaas van der Berg, 2018. "Measuring leadership and management and their linkages with literacy in rural and township primary schools in South Africa," Working Papers 21/2018, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Spaull, Nicholas & Kotze, Janeli, 2015. "Starting behind and staying behind in South Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 13-24.
    3. Marisa Coetzee, 2014. "School quality and the performance of disadvantaged learners in South Africa," Working Papers 22/2014, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    4. Gabrielle Wills, 2015. "A profile of the labour market for school principals in South Africa: Evidence to inform policy," Working Papers 12/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    5. Nicholas Spaull, 2012. "Poverty & Privilege: Primary School Inequality in South Africa," Working Papers 13/2012, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    6. Dumisani Hompashe, 2018. "Instructional leadership and academic performance: Eastern Cape educators’ perceptions and quantitative evidence," Working Papers 13/2018, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    7. Gabrielle Wills, 2016. "Principal leadership changes in South Africa: Investigating their consequences for school performance," Working Papers 01/2016, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    8. Jacobus Cilliers & Brahm Fleisch & Cas Prinsloo & Stephen Taylor, 2020. "How to Improve Teaching Practice?: An Experimental Comparison of Centralized Training and In-Classroom Coaching," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(3), pages 926-962.
    9. Tswakae Sebotsa & Josef De Beer & Jeanne Kriek, 2019. "Self-directed learning and teacher professional development: An adapted Profile of Implementation," Proceedings of Teaching and Education Conferences 9612181, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    10. Rafi Amir-ud-Din & Hafiz Zahid Mahmood & Faisal Abbas & Verda Salman & Sameen Zafar, 2022. "Leaving studies because of lack of interest: an analysis of the risk factors of school dropouts in Pakistan," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3189-3214, October.
    11. Debra Shepherd, 2015. "Learn to teach, teach to learn: A within-pupil across-subject approach to estimating the impact of teacher subject knowledge on South African grade 6 performance," Working Papers 01/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    12. Florent Dubois & Christophe Muller, 2017. "Decomposing Well-being Measures in South Africa: The Contribution of Residential Segregation to Income Distribution," AMSE Working Papers 1719, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    13. Elmarie Papageorgiou & Chris William Callaghan, 2018. "Parental style and gendered student performance in the South African context of accounting studies," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(5), pages 456-478, September.
    14. Marisa von Fintel & Servaas van der Berg, 2017. "What a difference a good school makes! Persistence in academic performance and the impact of school quality," Working Papers 07/2017, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics, revised 2017.
    15. Nicola Branson & Cally Ardington & David Lam & Murray Leibbrandt, 2013. "Changes in education, employment and earnings in South Africa – A cohort analysis," SALDRU Working Papers 105, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    16. Stephan Klasen & Anna Minasyan, 2021. "Affirmative Action and Intersectionality at the Top: Evidence from South Africa," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 3-35, January.
    17. Servaas van der Berg & Cobus Burger & Ronelle Burger & Mia de Vos & Gideon du Rand & Martin Gustafsson & Eldridge Moses & Debra Shepherd & Nicholas Spaull & Stephen Taylor & Hendrik van Broekhuizen & , 2011. "Low quality education as a poverty trap," Working Papers 25/2011, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    18. Cosser, Dr Michael, 2018. "Differential pathways of South African students through higher education," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 100-109.
    19. Johan Fourie, 2016. "The long walk to economic freedom after apartheid, and the road ahead," Working Papers 11/2016, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    20. Suntharmurthy Kristnasamy Naidoo & S Govender, 2021. "Lecturer Perceptions of General Education in Enhancing Self-Efficacy of Accounting Students," Journal of Education and Vocational Research, AMH International, vol. 11(2), pages 36-57.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mathematics teacher knowledge; SACMEQ; South Africa; Mathematics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:41:y:2015:i:c:p:121-130. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-educational-development .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.