Student-Teachers’ Views on the Affordances of Incorporating Cultural Artifacts in Mathematics Lessons in South Africa

Abstract Although the application of mathematics to real life contexts is advocated globally (Geiger et al., 2017), many student-teachers find it difficult to connect mathematics concepts with learners’ daily experiences. By incorporating cultural artifacts in mathematics lessons as part of an intervention, student-teachers could make mathematics more relevant to learners’ everyday lived experiences. This chapter investigates student-teachers’ views on the affordances of incorporating cultural artifacts in mathematics lessons in South Africa. Thus, the research question is: What are student-teachers’ views on the affordances of incorporating cultural artifacts in mathematics lessons in South Africa? Student-teachers had to execute classroom action research (CAR) in terms of ethnomathematics and cultural artifacts, which involved five processes, namely identifying, planning, acting and collecting data, analyzing and evaluating artifacts. The selected participants of this study were 17 student-teachers enrolled for a Bacholor of Education honors degree in mathematics education. However, only 11 agreed to participate voluntary. They were full-time mathematics teachers enrolled for a postgraduate qualification in mathematics teaching with ages ranging from 23 to 41. Six were male and were female. The student-teachers studied at a specific university in Johannesburg, South Africa. They were from diverse cultural groups, namely Pedi (2), Sotho (2), Venda (3), Xhosa (2) and Zulu (1). The results indicate the following affordances of the incorporation of cultural artifacts in mathematics lessons: (1) Allowing for the teaching of specific mathematics topics; (2) Making mathematics concepts authentic; (3) Leading to better understanding of mathematics; (4) Enhancing enjoyment of mathematics; (5) Stimulating an awareness of mathematics; (6) Encouraging creativity and innovation in problem solving. Research on the use of ethnomathematics to improve teaching practices in South Africa is in its infancy, and this chapter envisages to stimulate discourse in the field.