Page 76 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

EDUCATION

Teaching Grade 1–3 learners

maths in isiXhosa

For her master’s research project, Zintle Bangiso-Fihla has chosen to focus on pre-service
teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness to teach mathematics in isiXhosa foundation
phase classrooms.

“I was accepted into the master’s programme in April this year and
my research proposal is currently being reviewed by the Faculty
of Education,” says Bangiso-Fihla, who is part of the Nurturing
Emerging Scholars Programme (NESP).

“It would be very challenging to do my master’s without NESP
and I really appreciate the assistance and support I have received
during the COVID-19 pandemic, including enabling me to access
online workshops, which are critical for my research.

“My supervisor, Professor Nokhanya Mdzanga, and Dr Priscilla
Mensah, the Director of Research Development at Mandela
University, have been especially supportive. They organised a
laptop for me and I am forwarded links to workshops, such as one
on literature reviews, joining with scholars from other universities
in South Africa. We get to share our research and critique each
other’s work.”

Bangiso-Fihla did her honours at Rhodes University, looking at
theories in English language teaching in the foundation phase in an
isiXhosa classroom context. “What really attracts me to the Faculty
of Education at Mandela University is its strong engagement with
community schools. I grew up in the township in Komani [formerly
Queenstown] and I know the challenges of being a learner and
teacher in the township.”

For her research she is looking at isiXhosa foundation phase
classrooms (Grade 1 to 3) at schools in KwaNobuhle and other
townships in Nelson Mandela Bay. “I’ll be interviewing student
teachers who are first language isiXhosa speakers to find out
whether they were taught to teach mathematics in isiXhosa,
whether they teach foundation phase mathematics in English or Zintle Bangiso-Fihla
in isiXhosa during their teaching practice and whether the isiXhosa
first language learners engage with and understand what they are KwaNobuhle: “The children would be counting in English – why
learning.” is this? Another example, is a learner gave the correct answer to
a specific mathematics question and I asked him how he got to
Bangiso-Fihla says she was motivated to pursue this research the answer. His reply: ‘The teacher told me’. Too often children
after standing in as a foundation phase educator at a school in are not engaging with the content and I think it’s very important

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