Negotiating Multilingual Mathematical Discourse in South African Secondary School Township Classrooms

Teachers' Pedagogical Practices for Supporting Mathematics Learning

Abstract

Mathematics teaching in South African township secondary schools is characterised by significant linguistic diversity, where English serves as the language of learning and teaching despite many learners speaking African languages as their home languages. This creates challenges for learners' participation, mathematical communication, and conceptual understanding while simultaneously presenting opportunities for multilingual pedagogical practices. This study investigated how mathematics teachers negotiate multilingual mathematical discourse to support conceptual understanding and learner participation in township secondary school classrooms. The study was underpinned by Sociocultural Theory, which conceptualises learning as a socially mediated process in which knowledge is constructed through dialogue, interaction, and culturally situated activities. An interpretivist paradigm and exploratory qualitative research design were adopted. Twelve purposively selected mathematics teachers from multilingual township secondary schools participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and non-participant classroom observations to capture teachers' pedagogical practices and classroom interactions. Data were analysed thematically using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis approach. The findings revealed that teachers employed translanguaging, scaffolding, contextualisation of mathematical concepts, collaborative classroom discourse, flexible language practices, and questioning strategies to enhance mathematical meaning-making and learner participation. The study demonstrates that multilingualism is a valuable pedagogical resource that can improve equitable access to mathematics learning and provides contextually relevant evidence to inform teacher education, multilingual language policy, and mathematics pedagogy in linguistically diverse educational settings.