What Are the Factors, Challenges and Barriers Which Influence an Equitable Maths Learning Environment in Scottish Primary Schools?

Abstract

My research looks at how the conditions in Scottish primary schools can contribute to how equitable the teaching of maths is for students (McCluskey, 2017) and draws on Bourdieu's ideas around how schools reproduce social inequalities through the different ways that maths is taught (Noyes, 2016). The research draws on data from seven lecturers who teach on maths modules on initial teacher education (ITE) courses in Scotland and the school documents of 20 Scottish Primary schools. The documents were school improvement plans and school quality reports that can be accessed either directly on school websites or through Freedom of Information requests to the corresponding councils. Despite public access to the school documents, the school names have been pseudonymised to protect the identity of the schools, teachers, students and their families. The research adopted a qualitative method to explore the subject and found that students’ abilities were overlooked when their family’s values and circumstances did not align with the dominant expectations of teachers and schools, leading to perceptions of lower capability regardless of their actual potential. Socioeconomic dynamics continues to dominate the rhetoric in schools which works to maintain the status quo around the teaching of maths. In many cases, maths as a subject was presented as a performative subject which ignored the creative possibilities which maths offers. Concerning was the reference to teachers and pre-service teachers (PST) lacking in confidence and how this was deemed to impact maths outcomes and experiences for students. Linking to Bourdieu (1991), there was recognition that there was a continuous cycle which reproduced inequalities when those students in school did not possess the dominant capital which aligned to that of those holding dominant positions within the school structures.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Dundee
Supervisor	Fernando Lannes Fernandes (Supervisor) & Alan Mackie (Supervisor)