The Role of Translanguaging in Teaching Mathematics at Adult Correctional Centre Classrooms in South Africa

Abstract

This paper sought to explore the use of the translanguaging strategy as the means for decolonising and advancing the teaching of mathematics procedural fluency. From the pragmatic epistemological stance, the study collected both qualitative and quantitative data from the group of fifty purposively sampled adult offenders. The intervention study inferred data from pre-tests, post-tests, and semi-structured interviews. The data, which was analysed using SPSS and the thematic analysis approach, through the conceptual framework of teaching adult offenders mathematics procedural fluency through the isiZulu-English translanguaging strategy, indicate that the use of the translanguaging strategy yields satisfactory performance in adult offenders’ mathematics procedural fluency. The study further discovered that the translanguaging strategy leads to the decolonization of the mathematics curriculum and the development of isiZulu and English languages in correctional centre classrooms. The researcher recommends the use of the translanguaging strategy and fluidity in the use of any repertoires in the teaching of mathematics procedural fluency, conceptual understanding, and factual knowledge within the context of correctional centre classrooms. The researcher further concludes that translanguaging is applicable, and resourceful in all mathematics educational contexts, and it leads to the decolonization of the mathematics curriculum for both children and adults, in all contexts. The paper contributed to the scholarship by exploring the mathematics learning, teaching and assessment processes and the role of translanguaging thereof in correctional centre classrooms. Keywords: Translanguaging, Correctional Centre, Mathematics Classroom, Mathematics Procedural Fluency, Adult Offenders, Educationists