ROLES OF MATHEMATICS TEACHERS IN CLASSROOM INTERACTIONS: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY

Abstract

One of the biggest problems of mathematics education in Nepal is that a large number of children do not complete the entire cycle of primary education (Wagle, 2012 as cited in Lamichhane, 2018), and most of them fail in mathematics (Lamichhane, 2018). According to the National Assessment of Student Achievement ( ERO, 2018), many students are at the underperforming level in Mathematics. 32 out of 100 students fall below basic level in Mathematics achieving only 5% of the tested curriculum, and only 28% of curriculum is achieved by basic level students. Only 29% of the students have adequate knowledge and skills in the mathematics curriculum. Students’ learning level is found questionable, and the students are not able to answer even very easy questions satisfactorily. The study showed that the students who were provided regular homework and feedback on a regular basis from the teachers performed better than those who were not provided homework and feedback ( ERO, 2018). So, the role of the teacher is responsible for the achievement of the students in Mathematics. The purpose of the study was to explore the roles of mathematics teachers in classroom interactions. My research will encourage mathematics teachers to teach mathematics in an interactive way. The reader will get knowledge about the importance of classroom interactions. Students, teachers, school, parents, researchers, trainer and other academic personals will be directly and indirectly benefitted from this study. I have considered Vygotsky’s “Social Constructivism Theory” and “Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory” as a theoretical referent. I chose interpretivism as my paradigm and narrative inquiry as a research method to understand and interpret the real-life experiences of the teachers and the cultures of their schools. I focused on the beliefs, stories and teachers’ experiences of their classroom interactions during the interview with three participants who were purposively selected from Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts. Due to the pandemic situation of COVID-19, I took interviews by using Google meet and phone calls. I did the audio and video recording of their in-depth interviews following ethical considerations and made the typed form of the narrations. Then I developed the themes based on the narratives and discussed them with the support of literature and theories as referents. The roles of mathematics teachers changed from the traditional roles. It is not sufficient to teach the students only solving the problems by using the chalk and talk method. The roles of the mathematics teachers for classroom interactions change from traditional to modern. My research participants played various roles in the classroom interactions. According to their experiences and ideas, the roles of the mathematics teachers are the bridges that connect the contents of mathematics to the real-life for classroom interactions, the planner who plans for the activities according to the chapters or topics, which leads the meaningful interactions between mathematics teachers and students, and students and students. Mathematics teacher needs to practice democracy where all the students get equal opportunities to learn. Mathematics teachers provide opportunities to students during democratic practices in the classroom to meet democratic values such as freedom of expression and participation, respect for diversity, equality, and tolerance. Mathematics teachers need to create a favorable environment for the classroom interactions and address the students’ queries, to be polite and courageous to the students.