(Post-) apartheid’s legacy of racialised microaggressions in mathematics teacher education

Few women living with the label of ‘coloured’ in South Africa find themselves employed in mathematics higher education. Transformation in mathematics education in South Africa has been slow and riddled with racialised microaggressions for women living with racialised labels. While there is a belief that in democratic South Africa, for racially marginalised women, life opportunities have increased, covert racism continues to be felt as racial microaggressions, starting from family and friends to those in authoritative positions of power in higher education institutions. Drawing on critical race theory and theories of racial microaggressions, five ‘coloured’ women were interviewed separately using semi-structured questions to better understand their lived experiences of mathematics education. The main finding was that subtleties of not belonging to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education are exercised through access to and advancement in higher education via bursaries, scholarships and awards. Contribution: While students may welcome funding for their undergraduate and postgraduate STEM programmes, such funding also puts pressure on them to prove their worth continuously. Placing pressure on students resonates with expectations of an apartheid past. Furthermore, whether state or private, policymakers and funders need to be mindful of balancing the scale between awarding funding opportunities and students losing their funding if they drop out, achievable through flexible funding models. Rigid funding models may discourage career exploration and restrict options, while flexible models allow students to refine their career goals over time. For teacher education in mathematics, the state could offer flexibility in permitting students to interchange across disciplines of mathematics without penalties.