From prescription to practice: How intersen phase mathematics teachers mobilize curriculum materials in reform-oriented instruction

Source abstract

This study examines how four intersen phase (grade 4-grade 7) mathematics teachers at one South African school interpret and use prescribed textbooks and teacher guides in planning, enacting, and reflecting on reform-oriented mathematics lessons. Drawing on Leshota’s (2015) framework of curriculum mediation and Remillard’s (2005) and Brown’s (2009) conceptualization of curriculum use and pedagogical design capacity (PDC), the study employed a qualitative case study design. Data were generated through pre-and post-lesson interviews and lesson observations with four teachers and analyzed inductively using the constant comparative method. Findings indicate that teachers’ reliance on curriculum resources was shaped primarily by their mathematical content knowledge and was consistent across both textbooks and guides for a given teacher, suggesting that PDC functions as a knowledge-driven disposition rather than a resource-specific response. Teachers frequently struggled to articulate how their practice supported 21<sup>st</sup> century competencies, while adaptations to curriculum materials, although sometimes enhancing instruction, occasionally introduced content errors when undertaken without sufficient subject knowledge. The study contributes a fine-grained, resource-differentiated account of curriculum mediation, clarifying the knowledge-dependent conditions under which reform-oriented mathematics teaching is enabled or constrained in a highly prescriptive curriculum context.