ITeME

 

ITeME (Investigations in Tertiary Mathematics Education) is a developing research unit in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town. The unit brings together researchers interested in how students learn, experience, and progress through university mathematics, and in how teaching, curriculum, assessment, and support can be designed more effectively and equitably. While grounded in the South African higher education context, ITeME also aims to contribute to wider conversations in tertiary mathematics education.

 

The unit’s research agenda focuses on transitions into and through undergraduate mathematics; students’ mathematical practices, reasoning, participation, and identity development; and the curriculum, assessment, support, and professional learning structures that shape success in university mathematics. Its work spans a range of contexts, including mainstream first-year courses, extended curriculum spaces, support interventions, and selected later mathematics-intensive courses. In this way, ITeME seeks to generate a coherent body of research that speaks to both student experience and institutional design.

 

ITeME also aims to build a strong postgraduate and collaborative research community in tertiary mathematics education. Through seminars, research forums, supervision, and joint projects, the unit supports emerging and established researchers working on questions related to undergraduate mathematics teaching and learning. Its broader goal is to produce rigorous, research-informed knowledge that can strengthen practice, deepen understanding, and support more equitable participation and success in university mathematics.

Prospective postgraduate students, researchers, and collaborators who are interested in joining ITeME, contributing to its research agenda, or learning more about its work are warmly invited to get in touch. If you would like more information about the unit, potential postgraduate opportunities, or possibilities for collaboration, please email Dr Mashudu Mokhithi at mashudu.mokhithi@uct.ac.za