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Experiences of Iranian high school immigrant students in learning mathematics in Canada

University of British Columbia

Studying in a new country with a new culture and language is a challenge for new immigrant students. The problems these students face may vary based on their country of origin. As an Iranian mathematics tutor in Vancouver, I realized that Iranian immigrant students were struggling with learning math in Canada, and I conducted this study to find out which factors affect their math learning process. Seven Iranian students aged between 14 to 17 years old who immigrated to Canada between one and five years ago were chosen to participate in this study. Fourteen interviews with participants were used for this qualitative study, using a Thematic Analysis (TA) method. Based on this method (TA), I transcribed and coded the student interviews, and then constructed themes via these codes. The results showed that these students have had different experiences in learning math in Canada with regard to language of instruction, teaching methods, use of technologies, classroom setting, and parental control. They utilized several strategies to deal with the problems arising from these differences, but despite these strategies, they still struggled with doing their math homework or studying for exams. Reduced parental control in Canada gave them autonomy to decide when and how to study for their tests or finish their homework, but most students did not know how to use this autonomy wisely. In the end, I believe it would be beneficial for these students to be advised and taught how to be autonomous in their education. I recommend that math teachers do more to help these students face and overcome their problems.

Text

2019-10-28

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/72101

Mathematics Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/