Pre-service Mathematics Teachers’ Multicultural Mathematics Competency: A Case of a University in Northern Thailand

Abstract

This study aimed to explore pre-service mathematics teachers’ perceptions of their strengths and deficiencies in dealing with students from diverse mathematics cultural backgrounds. The pre-service mathematics teachers in the final year at a university located in Northern Thailand were participants. The survey and focus group interview were manipulated to attain more profound confirmation about how the pre-service mathematics teachers performed in their diverse mathematics classrooms. The pre-service mathematics teachers’ strengths and deficiencies were represented and divided into the affective, cognitive, and psychomotor domains. Their strengths included 1) consciousness about the multicultural processes, 2) acknowledgment of students’ sources of resistance, and 3) possession of a feedback cycle for dealing with diverse mathematics classrooms. Nevertheless, it was found their deficiencies, including 1) unawareness of multicultural diversity through many perspectives, 2) limited knowledge to handle irrelevant students’ culture, and 3) lack of skills to respond to a problem existing such as time limits. The implication included that pre-service mathematics teachers should have the opportunity to 1) interact with other different cultural mathematics backgrounds, 2) study more content courses about multicultural mathematics, and 3) engage in various activities involving multiculturalism and be exposed to multicultural instruction courses.