Mathematics Learners’ Perceptions of Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning during the COVID-19 Lockdown in a Disadvantaged Context

The COVID-19 global pandemic’s impact on education will take years to resolve. At this point, it is sensible to ponder the big questions of mathematics teaching and learning in disadvantaged contexts. This descriptive mixed-methods study is focused on the learners’ perceptions of the Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL) of mathematics during the COVID-19 lockdown. The study was conducted with 137 learners at public secondary schools in a disadvantaged context in South Africa. Purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. The data was collected through a Google-generated semi-structured questionnaire. Content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data from the open-response items. The quantitative data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The findings were that most learners in resource-constrained contexts neither enjoyed nor benefitted from the ERTL of mathematics and preferred face-to-face classroom interactions with the teachers. Many learners stated that they were used to seeing the teachers’ gestures, body language, and facial expressions. Most learners indicated that it was challenging not to work in groups when solving mathematics problems and that they could not learn mathematics productively at home. Further findings were that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted learners in disadvantaged contexts since they did not have adequate digital resources and internet connectivity to learn mathematics remotely. The COVID-19 pandemic will end one day. Studying the learners’ perceptions of the ERTL assists in the creation of programmes that can enhance digital mathematics teaching and learning in disadvantaged contexts.