Strategies implemented by South African teachers to ensure continuing mathematics education during COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present severe challenges to the education sector more than 2 years after the first case was detected. We explore the strategies South African teachers used to support continued mathematics learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic across different stages of the response to it and across different contexts. We explore these strategies, first, in relation to the initial shift to emergency remote teaching when learners needed to be reached in their homes under severe lockdown regulations, then through the gradual reopening of schools later as regulations were relaxed. Activity theory informs our perspective on the way in which teachers worked to mediate learning across school and home activity systems. Twenty-five Grade 4–7 mathematics teachers from the Eastern Cape responded to two questionnaires given at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown period and during the phased return to school. Questions focused on the strategies used to support mathematics learning. The results show that strategies focused on engaging caregivers through various technologies and getting resources into the home. WhatsApp, a free internet-based messaging service, was the most frequently used communication app across all types of schools for both messaging parents and sending instructional material and support in the form of videos, pictures and text messages. Department issued workbooks and teacher designed work packs were key resources sent to homes. Differences are evident in the range of use of different technologies across wealthier and poorer schools. Primary teachers’ voices inform possible ways forward for the purpose of managing young student mathematical learning gaps and meeting ongoing learning needs.