Relevance of Primary Level Mathematics Education in Nepal: A Cultural Perspective

Abstract

The study portrays the extent of relevancy of primary level mathematics education from cultural perspective. It concentrates on the specific themes of emerging main research questions based on as curricular materials students' culture friendly, pedagogy used by the teachers in multicultural classroom , challenges/problems faced by teachers and students, and voices of diverse educational stakeholders in the respects of making primary mathematics education culturally relevant. In dealing with research questions based on the above themes, I used ethnographic methodology under interpretive paradigm to explore the multiple realities through the methods of observation, documents analysis, and in an interactive or dialectical manner. The data have been analyzed using a sequential process of transcribing, coding, categorizing, and thematizing. The phenomena have been visualized from multiple theoretical perspectives and the researcher's own reflections or insights. The study field was constructed in Kathmandu valley for this study. I explored that the contents of primary mathematics curriculum were related to the everyday problems of human life to some extent. However, these were not iii sufficient to solve practical problems related in various dimensions of daily life. It means the present curricular materials were not prepared taking into account cultural perspective. Further, the existing pedagogical practices were less appropriate to address the multicultural classroom environment. There was a huge gap between the practice and the theory of culturally responsive teaching learning process. Moreover, the medium of instruction was found to be a key challenge in the multicultural classroom teaching- learning process. De/contextualization of mathematics teaching- learning activities, incompetent teachers in teaching mathematics in multicultural situation, mono-cultural pedagogies, and contents dominated by ideologies of western culture were found challenges of mathematics education. I have found that the application of fallibility approach rather than absolutistic one in teaching learning activities, mother tongue based primary education, incorporation of local mathematical knowledge in the curriculum; culture friendly pedagogy and continuous assessment system are the major approaches to make mathematics education culturally relevant in primary level. Likewise, teaching learning mathematics is to be linked with the culture of students, associating it with the real life situation, mitigating the existing dilemma of making culture unfriendly curriculum and promoting multiculturalism as well as culture friendly assessment are to be the other important aspects to make mathematics education culturally relevant.