Teaching number patterns through Kgati in a rural classroom

This article explores the pedagogical potential of African indigenous games, focusing on Kgati, a traditional skipping game, for the teaching of number patterns in a Grade 4 rural South African primary school. The article is framed within ongoing conversations about the value of indigenous knowledge systems and the promotion of culturally responsive pedagogies that affirm learners’ identities and local contexts. The theoretical ideas of horizontal and vertical mathematisation provided the basis for the study and are used to analyse the data, with horizontal mathematisation found to be the main feature of the observed Kgati-based lesson. This single case study, drawing on observational and video data collected from a mathematics lesson, investigates the way in which indigenous games can enhance mathematical understanding and learner engagement. A total of 14 teachers were involved in the project, but only one teacher’s lesson is reported on in this article. The findings reveal that learners respond enthusiastically to the incorporation of Kgati, displaying enjoyment and participation. However, the study also highlights a gap in transferring these informal skipping activities to formal written tasks, where some learners continued to struggle with abstract representations and the associated terminology of number patterns. It is recommended that teachers use Kgati and other indigenous games not only to introduce lessons but as a rich source of material for more abstract levels of mathematics, creating stronger links between the game and formal curriculum content.