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Mathematics Education – An Asian Perspective

Berinderjeet Kaur
Oh Nam Kwon
Yew Hoong Leong Editors

Professional
Development
of Mathematics
Teachers
An Asian Perspective
Mathematics Education – An Asian
Perspective

Series editors
Berinderjeet Kaur, National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore
Catherine Vistro-Yu, Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, Philippines
Aims and Scope

Mathematics Education – An Asian Perspective facilitates high quality publications

on rigorous aspects of mathematics education in Asia. This will be achieved by
producing thematic books that capture knowledge and practices on mathematics
education in Asia from both the insider and outsider perspectives. The series helps
to establish a much needed Asian perspective to mathematics education research in
the international landscape.
Over the last decade or so, several international comparative studies have shed
light on systems of schooling that were otherwise not very much sought after.
Several educational systems in Asia, in particular East Asia have consistently
produced stellar outcomes for mathematics in both TIMSS and PISA despite the
fact that both studies measure achievement in mathematics in distinct ways that are
very much orthogonal to each other, while other Asian systems have not been able
to replicate the same level of success. Though one may occasionally chance upon a
publication on some aspect of mathematics education in Asia, there appears to be in
general a dearth of publications on mathematics education in Asian countries from
the perspectives of scholars from Asia. Hence it is apparent that there is a gap in the
availability of knowledge on mathematics education from the region in the
international space.
This series has a wide scope with emphasis on relevancy and timeliness. It
encompasses the general trends in educational research such as theory, practice and
policy. Books in the series are thematic and focus both on macro and micro topics.
An example of a themed book on a macro topic could be one on “School
mathematic curricula – An Asian perspective” while a themed book on a micro
topic could be one on “The pedagogy of ‘simultaneous equations’ in Asian
classrooms”.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11679

Berinderjeet Kaur Oh Nam Kwon
•

Yew Hoong Leong

Editors

Professional Development
of Mathematics Teachers
An Asian Perspective

123
Editors
Berinderjeet Kaur Yew Hoong Leong
National Institute of Education National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University
Singapore Singapore
Singapore Singapore

Oh Nam Kwon
Seoul National University
Seoul
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

ISSN 2366-0155 ISSN 2366-0163 (electronic)

Mathematics Education – An Asian Perspective
ISBN 978-981-10-2596-9 ISBN 978-981-10-2598-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2598-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016951660

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or
for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #22-06/08 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore
Contents

1 Mathematics Teacher Professional Development:

An Asian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Yew Hoong Leong, Berinderjeet Kaur and Oh Nam Kwon

Part I Policies, Structures, Frameworks and Contexts

2 Professional Development of Secondary Mathematics
Teachers in Mainland China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Rongjin Huang, Lijun Ye and Kyle Prince
3 The Endless Long-Term Program of Mathematics
Teacher Professional Development in Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Yaya S. Kusumah and Farida Nurhasanah
4 Lesson Study: The Fundamental Driver for Mathematics
Teacher Development in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Akihiko Takahashi
5 Towards Balancing Knowledge and Practice of In-Service
Mathematics Teacher Education Program in Korea . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Oh Nam Kwon, Jung Sook Park, Jaehee Park and Jee Hyun Park
6 Profiling Mathematics Teacher Professional Development
in Malaysia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chin Mon Chiew and Chap Sam Lim
7 Congruence Between Context and Opportunities for Professional
Development of Mathematics Teachers in the Philippines . . . . . . . . 89
Debbie Verzosa, Maria Theresa Tulao-Fernando
and Catherine Vistro-Yu
8 Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers in Singapore . . . . 97
Berinderjeet Kaur and Lai Fong Wong

v
vi Contents

9 Mathematics Teachers Professional Development in Taiwan . . . . . . 109

Fou-Lai Lin and Yu-Ping Chang

Part II Innovative Professional Development Programs in Asia

10 Constraints and Affordances in Bringing About Shifts in Practice
Towards Developing Reasoning in Mathematics: A Case Study . . . . . 121
Ruchi S. Kumar and K. Subramaniam
11 A Community-Based, Practice-Oriented Teacher Professional
Development Program: Changes in Teaching Culture in Korea . . . . . 141
Oh Nam Kwon, Jee Hyun Park, Jung Sook Park and Jaehee Park
12 Classroom as a Site for Teacher Learning: Emergence of
a Paradigm Shift in Mathematics Teacher Education in Pakistan. . . . 159
Anjum Halai
13 Teaching for Metacognition Project: Construction of Knowledge
by Mathematics Teachers Working and Learning Collaboratively
in Multitier Communities of Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Berinderjeet Kaur, Divya Bhardwaj and Lai Fong Wong
14 Boundary Objects Within a Replacement Unit Strategy
for Mathematics Teacher Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Yew Hoong Leong, Eng Guan Tay, Tin Lam Toh,
Romina Ann Soon Yap, Pee Choon Toh, Khiok Seng Quek
and Jaguthsing Dindyal
15 Facilitating Professional Growth of Taiwanese In-service
Mathematics Teachers Through an Innovative
School-Based Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Fou-Lai Lin, Hui-Yu Hsu and Jian-Cheng Chen
16 School-Based In-service Mathematics Teachers’ Professional
Development: Designing Diagnostic Conjecturing Activities. . . . . . . 223
Jian-Cheng Chen and Fou-Lai Lin
Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Berinderjeet Kaur is Professor of Mathematics Education at the National Institute

of Education in Singapore. Her primary research interests are in the area of
classroom pedagogy of mathematics teachers and comparative studies in mathe-
matics education. She has been involved in numerous international studies of
mathematics education and was the Mathematics Consultant to TIMSS 2011. She is
also a member of the MEG (Mathematics Expert Group) for PISA 2015. As the
President of the Association of Mathematics Educators (AME) from 2004–2010,
she has also been actively involved in the professional development of mathematics
teachers in Singapore and is the founding chairperson of Mathematics Teachers’
Conferences that started in 2005 and the founding editor of the AME Yearbook
series that started in 2009. She was awarded the Public Administration Medal by
the President of Singapore in 2006.
Oh Nam Kwon is Professor of Mathematics Education at Seoul National
University. She has worked as a researcher, primary and secondary teacher edu-
cator, supervisor of graduate research and as an adviser to governments. She has
written practically oriented books and articles for mathematics educators as well as
producing a large set of research articles. Professor Kwon’s research interests
include curriculum development, teaching and learning of collegiate mathematics,
teacher education, and inquiry-oriented teaching. She is Editorial Board for book
series “Advances in Mathematics Education” by Springer. She has served as
committee member for numerous international (including International Programme
Committee of ICME-12) and Korean organizations of mathematics education. She
is serving as a member of National Committee of Korean Institute of Curriculum
and Evaluation. She was a member of 2015 OECD/PISA Mathematics Expert
Group. She received the Best Teaching Awards, Seoul National University in 2009.
She has served the Jury for Mathematics Planet Earth 2013 Virtual Modules
Competition the patronage of UNESCO and the committee member for Leelavati
Prize 2014 of International Mathematics Union. She received the Outstanding

vii
viii Editors and Contributors

Services Achievement Awards, Korean Society of Mathematical Education in

2014. Currently, she is the Chair of the 2015 Revised National High School
Mathematics Curriculum in Korea.
Yew Hoong Leong is Assistant Professor with the Mathematics and Mathematics
Education Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang
Technological University in Singapore. He engages in design research that places
emphasis on mathematics teacher development, problem solving, and teaching for
low achievers.

Contributors

Divya Bhardwaj is research associate at the Mathematics and Mathematics

Education Academic Group of the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore.
Since 2011, she has been involved with various research projects at the Centre for
Research in Pedagogy and Practice and the Mathematics and Mathematics
Education Academic group in NIE. Prior to that, she was a secondary school
mathematics teacher at NPS International School, Singapore. She completed her
Master of Science (Mathematics for Educators) in NIE in 2009 and the Cambridge
International Diploma for Teachers & Trainers in 2010. Currently, she is pursuing a
Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics.
Yu-Ping Chang is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Mathematics
of the National Taiwan Normal University. Her research interests involve mathe-
matics textbook analysis, mathematics teacher education, and professional
development.
Jian-Cheng Chen is Assistant Professor in Center for General Education of Ming
Chi University of Technology. His research interests include students’ mathemat-
ical thinking, mathematics teachers’ professional development and mathematics
teacher educators’ professional development.
Chin Mon Chiew is Senior Lecturer in the Mathematics Department of Institute of
Teacher Education Tuanku Bainun Campus, Penang, Malaysia. He obtained his
Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia. He
teaches mathematics and mathematics education courses to pre-service mathematics
teachers for primary schools. His research interests concern lesson study and pro-
fessional learning communities, mainly in the area of teacher development. He has
been actively involved as a master trainer to promote lesson study for teachers’
professional development both at state and national level. At international
involvement, he has presented several research papers in the EARCOME and
ICME conferences.
Jaguthsing Dindyal is Associate Professor at the National Institute of Education,
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He holds Ph.D. in Mathematics
Education from Illinois State University, USA. He has prior experience of teaching
Editors and Contributors ix

at the secondary level and currently teaches mathematics education courses to both
pre-service and in-service teachers. His research interests include reasoning and
proofs, problem solving, geometric and algebraic thinking, international studies and
the mathematics curriculum. His contributions in these areas include a number of
refereed conference papers, book chapters and journal articles.
Anjum Halai is Professor of Mathematics Education currently based at the Aga
Khan University in Pakistan. She has a wide experience of working in the field
especially in the context of developing countries such as Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania
and Uganda. She is an active participant and contributor in international events such
as the International Congress in Mathematics Education and the PME conferences.
Her research interests are focussed on issues of social justice in multilingual
mathematics classrooms. Her recent publications include the edited book ‘Teaching
and Learning Mathematics in Multilingual Classrooms: Issues for policy, practice
and teacher education’.
Hui-Yu Hsu is Assistant Professor in Graduate Institution of Mathematics and
Science Education at National Hsinchu University of Education. Her research
interests include teaching and learning of geometry, mathematics textbook analysis,
and mathematics teacher education.
Rongjin Huang is Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at Middle
Tennessee State University, USA. His research interests include mathematic class-
room instruction, mathematics teacher education, and comparative study in mathe-
matics education. Dr. Huang has published scholarly work extensively. His recently
published books include How Chinese teach mathematics and improve teaching
(2013) and Prospective mathematics teachers ’ knowledge of algebra: A compar-
ative study in China and the United States of America (2014). Dr. Huang has served
as a guest editor for The International Journal on Mathematics Education. He has
organized and chaired secessions at AERA, NCTM, as well as ICME.
Ruchi S. Kumar is Assistant professor at Centre for Education Innovation and
Action Research (CEIAR) at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She
is pursuing her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Homi Bhabha Centre for
Science education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Her research interests
include analyzing interaction between teachers’ beliefs, knowledge and practices,
role of specialized content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in
teaching of mathematics and role of communities in teachers’ learning.
Yaya S. Kusumah is Professor of Mathematics Education at the Indonesia
University of Education. He has Ph.D. in Mathematics from Curtin University
Australia. He is currently the Director of Post Graduate Schools at the University.
He has worked extensively in the area of mathematics and mathematics education.
He has been involved in Lesson Study programs in Indonesia since 2005. In 2005
he became a member of university accreditation board in Indonesia as a reviewer.
His research interests include the areas of discrete mathematics, professional
development of teachers and technology for teaching mathematics.
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x Editors and Contributors

Chap Sam Lim is Professor in Mathematics Education at the Universiti Sains

Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. She obtained Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from
the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. She is currently teaching mathematics
education research course and qualitative research method courses at graduate level.
Her research interests focus on public images of mathematics, teaching mathematics
in second language, cross-cultural study and particularly Lesson Study as a pro-
fessional development for mathematics teachers. She is an active collaborator of
several international research projects especially on Lesson Study and cross-cultural
comparative study of mathematics teaching and learning in schools. Her latest
publication includes as one of the co-editors in The First Sourcebook on Asian
Research in Mathematics Education: China, Korea, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and
India published in 2015.
Fou-Lai Lin is Chair Professor in Mathematics Department at National Taiwan
Normal University and the Director of the Shi-Da Institute for Mathematics
Education where he directs a national program “Just Do Math” for students,
teachers and teacher educators. He is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of International
Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. He was a former president of PME.
About 35 years engaging in mathematics education research and practice, his works
across curriculum and material development, students’ mathematics understanding,
teachers’ and teacher educators’ education and professional development.
Farida Nurhasanah is Lecturer at the Teachers Training and Education Faculty of
Sebelas Maret University in Indonesia. At present she is a doctorate student in
Indonesia University of Education. Her research interests are abstraction in math-
ematics, professional development for in-service and pre-service mathematics
teachers, problem solving, geometrical thinking.
Jaehee Park is a mathematics teacher at Gyeonggi Science High School for the
Gifted in Korea, where she has taught since 2011. Also she has taught mathematics
at several middle schools and high schools since 1993 and gave lectures at Silla
University and Hanyang University for 4 years. She completed the doctoral
coursework in mathematics education at Seoul National University. Her major areas
of research are STEAM education focused on mathematics, student-centered
instruction, and mathematics class based on questioning and discussion, etc.
Jee Hyun Park has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Seoul National
University. She has taught middle and high school mathematics in Seoul, Korea for
nearly 17 years. She has also taught future teachers at university for 6 years. For the
past 4 years, she has been on the research supported by Korea Foundation for
Advance of Science and Creativity. She has been working on programs that develop
secondary teachers’ professionalism for over 10 years as teaching consultant. Her
professional interests are finding ways to increase mathematics literacy for sec-
ondary students and improving professional development, especially teaching and
assessing using the technology.
Editors and Contributors xi

Jung Sook Park has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Seoul National
University. She has taught middle and high school mathematics in Seoul, Korea for
nearly 23 years. She has also taught future mathematics teachers at Hanyang
University for 8 years. She has attended in developing in revised 2015 National
Standard Curriculum and high school textbooks. She has been working on pro-
grams that develop secondary teachers’ professionalism.
Kyle Prince teaches mathematics at Central Magnet School in Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, USA. Prince was named the 2015–2016 Middle Tennessee Teacher
of the Year and selected as a finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in
Science and Mathematics Teaching. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in
Mathematics Education at Middle Tennessee State University. His interests include
teaching through problem solving and adapting Chinese and Japanese lesson study
models in the United States. In his dissertation, Prince is exploring lesson study as
an aid in enhancing teachers’ understandings, implementations, and perceptions of
mathematics teaching practices.
Khiok Seng Quek is Senior Lecturer with the Psychological Studies Academic
Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore. His areas of study focus on assessment and teacher education. He is an
active collaborator on projects that investigate the integration, influence, and use of
new assessment strategies in mathematics classrooms, including the recent
Mathematics Assessment Project funded by the Centre for Research in Pedagogy
and Practice, NIE. He is also the co-principal investigator of the project
Mathematical Problem Solving for Everyone (M-ProSE).
K. Subramaniam (Ravi) is Professor of mathematics education at the Homi
Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in
Mumbai, India. His research has focused on the learning of core topics in middle
school mathematics such as fractions, ratio and proportion, algebra and geometric
measurement, specialized knowledge and professional development of in-service
mathematics teachers and connecting out-of-school mathematical knowledge with
school learning.
Akihiko Takahashi is Associate Professor at DePaul University. He teaches
mathematics and mathematics education for prospective teachers. He was a teacher
in Japan before becoming an educator of mathematics teachers. During his teaching
career, he was nationally active in mathematics lesson study in Japan. He received
his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; his dissertation
research focused on Internet use in mathematics education. He has published over
45 journal articles and book chapters and given over 50 presentations and keynote
at conferences and workshops in Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malawi,
Malaysia, Mexico, Philippine, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, Uganda, United
Kingdom, and United States.
xii Editors and Contributors

Eng Guan Tay is Associate Professor in the Mathematics and Mathematics

Education Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. His
main research areas are in Graph Theory for Mathematics, and problem solving as
well as teaching undergraduate mathematics for Mathematics Education.
Pee Choon Toh received his Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore in
2007. He is currently Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education,
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His main research interest
includes number theory, specifically the theory of partitions, modular forms and
elliptic functions. He is also interested in problem solving, the teaching of math-
ematics at the undergraduate level, as well as the use of technology in teaching.
Tin Lam Toh is Associate Professor with the Mathematics and Mathematics
Education Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore. He obtained his Ph.D. in Mathematics
(Henstock-stochastic integral) from the National University of Singapore. Dr. Toh
continues to do research in mathematics as well as in mathematics education. He
has papers published in international scientific journals in both areas. Dr. Toh has
taught in junior college in Singapore and was head of the mathematics department
at the junior college level before he joined the National Institute of Education.
Maria Theresa Tulao-Fernando is a full-time instructor at the Mathematics
Department of the Ateneo de Manila University. Her scholarly interests include
teacher education and professional development, links from arithmetic to algebraic
thinking, and mathematical pedagogical knowledge.
Debbie Verzosa is Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department of the
Ateneo de Manila University. Her main fields of interest are in the areas of
non-formal education for disadvantaged groups, the development of children's
mathematical thinking, and mathematics teacher education.
Catherine Vistro-Yu Professor in the Mathematics Department of the Ateneo de
Manila University, the Philippines, is a mathematics educator. She teaches math-
ematics and mathematics education courses to classroom teachers of both the pri-
mary and secondary levels. Her research interests lie mostly in the area of
mathematics teacher education and children’s understanding of mathematics
although she has studied other important concerns as well, such as the use of
technology in mathematics education and mathematics teachers’ beliefs. In the last
decade, she has actively engaged in large-scale mathematics education projects and
programs in her country that address issues of curriculum, teacher competencies in
mathematics, and student achievement, among others. Catherine’s international
network has provided her with valuable opportunities for significant collaboration
with colleagues in Asia through the SEACME and EARCOME, and with other
foreign colleagues through ICME.
Editors and Contributors xiii

Lai Fong Wong has been a mathematics teacher for over 20 years and is known
for her efforts in engaging students with fresh and creative strategies in the study of
mathematics. For her exemplary teaching and conduct she was given the President’s
Award for Teachers in 2009. She sets the tone for teaching the subject in Anderson
Secondary School, being Head of Department (Mathematics) from 2001 to 2009
and currently a Lead Teacher for Mathematics. She is also an executive committee
member of the Singapore’s Association of Mathematics Educators, and a member
of the Singapore Academy of Teacher’s Math Chapter Core Team. She was
awarded the Post-graduate Scholarship by Singapore Ministry of Education to
pursue a Master of Education in Mathematics which she has completed in 2014.
Currently, she is involved in several Networked Learning Communities looking at
ways to infuse mathematical reasoning, metacognitive strategies, and real-life
context in the teaching of mathematics. Lai Fong is also active in the professional
development of mathematics teachers and in recognition of her significant contri-
bution toward the PD of Singapore teachers, she is awarded the Associate of the
Academy of Singapore Teachers in 2015.
Romina Ann Soon Yap holds an M.S. degree in Applied Mathematics from the
University of the Philippines and is currently completing her Ph.D. in Mathematics
Education at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University
in Singapore. She has worked as a secondary mathematics teacher in the Philippines
and as a mathematics instructor at the Ateneo de manila University. Her research
interests include mathematical problem solving and mathematics teacher
development.
Lijun Ye is Professor of Mathematics Education at Hangzhou Normal University,
China. His research interests include mathematics classroom research, mathematics
teacher education, and comparative mathematics education. He has completed
several Ministry of Education of China-funded research projects and published
scholarly work extensively. He has published 80 papers and more than 20 text-
books. The recently published books include Mathematics Curriculum and
Instruction (2011), Studies on Classroom Teaching of Mathematics (2014), and
Teaching Design of Secondary School Mathematics (2015). He has organized and
chaired activities at various international conferences such as AERA and ICME.
xiv Editors and Contributors

Contributors

Divya Bhardwaj National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological

University, Singapore, Singapore
Yu-Ping Chang National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
Jian-Cheng Chen Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Chin Mon Chiew Institute of Teacher Education, Penang, Malaysia
Jaguthsing Dindyal National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, Singapore
Anjum Halai Institute for Educational Development, Aga Khan University,
Karachi, Pakistan
Hui-Yu Hsu National Hsinchu University of Education, Hsinchu City, Taiwan
Rongjin Huang Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, USA
Berinderjeet Kaur National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, Singapore
Ruchi S. Kumar Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai,
India
Yaya S. Kusumah Department of Mathematics Education, Universitas Pendidikan
Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Oh Nam Kwon Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Yew Hoong Leong National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, Singapore
Chap Sam Lim Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Fou-Lai Lin National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei City, Taiwan
Farida Nurhasanah Mathematics Education Department of Teachers Training
and Education Faculty, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia
Jaehee Park Gyeonggi Science High School for the Gifted, Suwon, South Korea
Jee Hyun Park Banpo High School, Seoul, South Korea
Jung Sook Park Yangjae High School, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
Kyle Prince Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, USA
Khiok Seng Quek National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, Singapore
K. Subramaniam Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai,
India
Editors and Contributors xv

Akihiko Takahashi DePaul University, College of Education, Chicago, USA;

Project IMPULS at Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan
Eng Guan Tay National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, Singapore
Pee Choon Toh National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, Singapore
Tin Lam Toh National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore, Singapore
Maria Theresa Tulao-Fernando Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City,
Philippines
Debbie Verzosa Ateneo de Davao University, Davao City, Philippines
Catherine Vistro-Yu Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines
Lai Fong Wong Anderson Secondary School, Singapore, Singapore
Romina Ann Soon Yap National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore, Singapore
Lijun Ye Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
Series Editors’ Introduction

The second volume of the book series Mathematics Education: An Asian

Perspective, entitled, “Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers: An
Asian Perspective” and edited by Berinderjeet Kaur, Oh Nam Kwon and Leong
Yew Hoong offers a counterpart to the extensive corpus of literature on the same
topic that has been dominated by scholars from the Western countries. This volume
is a worthy contribution to mathematics education literature especially relevant to
Asian teachers and students. As envisioned, it provides a rich source of information
and analyses that could only be rightfully written by scholars from Asia for scholars
in Asia.
The book is the first to present substantial contributions from scholars in Asia in
the area of professional development of mathematics teachers in their respective
countries. A synthesis of the contributions by the editors sheds valuable light on
how approaches to the professional development of mathematics teachers uniquely
resemble or differ from those in the West. The book also provides scholars from
non-English-speaking and underrepresented Asian countries the opportunity to
engage in discourse with other scholars in the field.
There is no doubt that this book contributes towards narrowing the gap in the
availability of knowledge on the development of mathematics teachers in Asia in
the international space. We hope the readers will find it enjoyable and the
researchers a valuable resource.

Singapore Berinderjeet Kaur

Philippines Catherine Vistro-Yu

xvii
Chapter 1
Mathematics Teacher Professional
Development: An Asian Perspective

Yew Hoong Leong, Berinderjeet Kaur and Oh Nam Kwon

Abstract This introductory chapter sets the context for the book. It also provides
an overview of the chapters in the two parts of the book. The first part comprises
eight chapters on policies, structures, frameworks, and contexts. The chapters
provide us with some ideas about the professional development (PD) of mathe-
matics teachers in eight Asian countries, namely China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is evident from these eight
chapters that the countries are at different phases of development of teacher pro-
fessionalism. In some countries there are mandatory acts and regulations governing
the continuous teacher PD while in others the situation is lax, and in such cases PD
would greatly depend on a teacher’s own motivation and also the availability of
resources. The second part comprises eight chapters that showcase innovative
approaches to mathematics teacher PD in Asian countries, namely India, Japan,
Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is apparent that all of these PD programs
have similar characteristics and exemplify a critical development in teacher PD in
Asia. This development reflects a gradual shift in the center of gravity away from
the university-based, supply-side, off-line forms of knowledge production con-
ducted by university researchers for teachers toward emergent school-based,
demand-side, on-line, in situ forms of knowledge production by teachers with
support from university scholars.

Keywords Teacher professional development
Teachers in Asia

Y.H. Leong (&)
B. Kaur

National Institute of Education, Singapore, Singapore
e-mail: [email protected]
B. Kaur
e-mail: [email protected]
O.N. Kwon
Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 1

B. Kaur et al. (eds.), Professional Development of Mathematics
Teachers, Mathematics Education – An Asian Perspective,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2598-3_1
2 Y.H. Leong et al.

1.1 Introduction

“The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers” was
one of the three key findings in the McKinsey’s report on how the world’s best
performing school systems come out on top (Barber and Mourshed 2007, p. 16).
The report also states that “the main driver of the variation in student learning at
school is the quality of teachers” (p. 12). The quality of teachers depends on several
factors and one of them is certainly their continuous professional development
(PD) (Barber and Mourshed 2007; Mullis et al. 2012).
There has been an interest over the last decades in teacher PD and its impact on
both students and teacher learning (Avalos 2011; Yoon et al. 2007). For example, in
a most recent study using fourth- and eighth-grade mathematics data from the 2003,
2007, and 2011 TIMSS assessments, Liang et al. (2015) conducted a cross-national
empirical study to examine teacher participation in PD and its impact on student
achievement. They conclude that professional learning for teachers of fourth- and
eighth-grade mathematics is associated with increased student achievement. Based
on the positive association between student mathematics achievement and teacher
PD, researchers conducted a series of multiple regression models. The regressions
indicated that, after controlling for GDP and educational expenditure, there was a
statistically significant association in 2007 in five of the six PD areas for
fourth-grade students (math content, pedagogy, curriculum, integrating technology,
and improving critical thinking and problem-solving skills) and in 2011 in one area.
For eighth-grade students, a percentage point increase in access to teachers with PD
in mathematics content, pedagogy, curriculum, and integration of technology
increased the national mean mathematics achievement score by an average of 1.04,
1.24, 0.93, and 1.07 points, respectively.
Similarly, Unal et al. (2011) analyzed the TIMSS 2007 data of participants from
Turkey and found that mathematics teacher PD made a big difference and affected
students’ performance positively. Kwon and Ju (2012) also claimed that a part of
the high performance of Korean students in TIMSS and PISA may be attributed to
the higher level of teacher preparation and PD. These findings, when coupled with
other studies (for example, Desimone 2009), emphasize the importance of linking
the content of professional learning to specific outcomes for students, ensuring
depth of teacher content knowledge and content-specific pedagogy, depth of
knowledge of curriculum, assessment practices, and technology integration into the
content. These studies support the implementation of policies, advocacy, and
practices for PD as a vehicle for improving student achievement and supporting
educational reform.
The premise of this book is that teachers are the key to students’ opportunities to
learn mathematics. What mathematics teachers know, care about, and do is a
product of their experiences and socialization both prior to and after entering
teaching, coupled with the impact of their ongoing professional education. The
significance of this impact varies among different education systems: the effects of
professional education appear in some systems to be weak or even negligible,
1 Mathematics Teacher Professional Development … 3

whereas other systems are structured to support effective ongoing professional

education and instructional improvement. Documenting and focusing on the
mathematics teacher PD are important in the context of teachers’ central role in
students’ learning of mathematics. Also important is the fact that efforts to improve
students’ opportunities to learn mathematics cannot succeed without parallel
attention to their teachers’ opportunities for learning. Thus, teacher PD is a crucial
element in the effort to build an effective system of mathematics education.
The pivotal role of the teacher—and hence teacher education—is attested by a
discernible surge in reports on PD in the mathematics education literature over the
last decade. Apart from an increase in the number of journal articles and book
chapters in this sub-field, there had been special issues of mathematics education
journals (e.g., ZDM Special Issue on Evidence-based Continual Professional
Development, 2015), scholarly books (e.g., The 15th ICMI Study Group report on
the professional education and development of teachers of mathematics, 2009), and
even volumes of a handbook (Volumes 1–4 of The International Handbook of
Mathematics Teacher Education, 2008) that are focused on this area of PD for
mathematics teachers. The collection of chapters in this book further contributes to
this trend. In particular, we seek to moderate an underrepresentation in the global
corpus on this subject: an Asian perspective.
The outcomes of TIMSS (Mullis et al. 2008, 2012) and PISA (OECD 2010,
2013) show us that students in some Asian countries, such as Korea, Taiwan, Japan,
and Singapore, achieve much more than their counterparts in other Asian countries,
such as Indonesia and Malaysia. This may be a consequence of varying teacher
recruitment standards, teacher preparation and ongoing development programs, and
other factors, such as political, social, and cultural factors. As teacher PD does have
an impact on student outcomes, this book attempts to provide a resource for
scholars to hypothesize relationships between the myriad attributes of mathematics
teacher PD and student outcomes. In addition, cross-cultural exchange of knowl-
edge and information about the professional education of teachers of mathematics
would be beneficial. Learning about practices and programs in Asian countries can
provide important resources for research, theory, practice, and policy in teacher
education, both locally and globally.
In the rest of this chapter, we provide a broad overview of the two main parts of
the book before concluding with some observations about current trends and likely
directions of mathematics teacher PD in Asia.

1.2 Policies, Structures, Frameworks, and Contexts

Part I comprises eight chapters on policies, structures, frameworks, and contexts.

These chapters provide us with some ideas about mathematics teacher PD in eight
Asian countries: China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore,
and Taiwan. It is apparent from these chapters that there are similarities and also
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4 Y.H. Leong et al.

differences in the approaches to mathematics teacher PD in these countries.

Table 1.1 shows the various acts and national initiatives that have had an impact on
teacher PD, including mathematics teachers, in the respective countries.

Table 1.1 Acts and national initiatives related to teacher PD

Country Act/Initiative Year Mandatory teacher accreditation/PD
requirements
China The Teachers Act 1994 In-service teachers must do a minimum of
240 h of PD over a five year period
Indonesia Undang-Undang Guru dan 2005 The law mandates standard qualifications for
Dosen (UUGD) Number 14 teachers to teach in schools and universities
UUGD Number 14 (Chapter 2005 All teachers in Indonesia must have a national
IV Unit 18) Law teaching certificate as a license to practice
Teachers are free to engage in activities that
develop them professionally
Japan Lesson Study Early A cultural and traditional form of PD that is
1900s inherent in the Japanese school system
Renewal System of Teachers’ 2009 30 h of “certificate renewal courses” approved
Certificate by Minister of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science, and Technology
Korea The Teachers Act (New 1995 In-service teachers must receive training at
Educational Reform Plan) regular intervals. However, the plan did not
specify the mandatory hours and intervals
Reform Act 2010 Development of teaching competence was
enacted into law. Teacher evaluation system
by students and parents was adopted. Teachers
whose student evaluation is 2.5 points or less
out of a total of 5 points must undertake 30 h
of training
On-the-job Training 2011 Teachers must complete over 60 h of
on-the-job training per year, which is a feature
of their performance-based pay
Malaysia Directive from MOE 2005 Teachers to undergo 7 days of in-service
training per year directed by the school leaders
Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 All practicing teachers must undergo
2013–2015 continuing PD at various stages of their
teaching career
Philippines Department of Education 2001 An INSET program ranging 3–5 days per year
(DepEd) annual in-service according to the school calendar issued by the
(INSET) program DepEd
Singapore Thinking Schools Learning 1997 As of 1998 teachers are entitled to 100 h of
Nation (TSLN) vision PD per year that is funded by the Ministry of
Education
Teach Less Learn More 2005 Planned time for teachers during curriculum
(TLLM) initiative hours to meet, plan, and deliberate on their
instructional practices was made mandatory
Taiwan Education Act 1996 In-service teachers must do 90 h of PD over a
period of 5 years
The Education Act was 2003 With the dissolution of the act, teachers now
repealed in 2003 participate in PD to improve themselves
without any mandatory requirements
1 Mathematics Teacher Professional Development … 5

From Table 1.1 it is evident that each of the eight countries is at a different phase
in its development of teacher professionalism. In some countries there are
mandatory acts and regulations governing the continuous teacher PD while in
others the situation is lax and in such cases a lot would depend on the teachers’ own
motivation for development and also the availability of resources.
It is evident from Chap. 2 by Huang, Ye, and Prince that mathematics teacher
PD in China has had a long tradition and is structured with very clear development
pathways. The Teacher Act of 1994 (Ministry of Education China 1994) has led to
the development of an accreditation system which sets guidelines for teachers to
obtain their license to practice. There is a ranking and promotion system and
teachers have to undertake a minimum of 240 h of PD over a five-year period. The
local education authorities stipulate the requirements for teacher continuing edu-
cation programs according to the ranks of the teachers. The major PD practices are
one-to-one mentoring; practice-based research activities comprised of three clusters,
namely, routine activity, competitions, and new developments; and both training
and education degree programs for teachers to upgrade themselves, implement new
curriculum contents and initiatives, and most importantly raise the quality of
mathematics instruction in the country. Through PD there is a dedicated attempt to
develop expert teachers with deep knowledge in both content and pedagogy.
In Indonesia, as noted in Chap. 3 by Kusumah and Nurhasanah, national cer-
tification of teachers was only mandated in 2005. This is probably the first step
toward setting standards for teachers to be professionals. The UUGD, Number 14,
Chapter IV, Unit 18, states that, “Teachers must have academic qualifications,
competencies (pedagogical, social, and professional), national certification for
teaching, good physical and spiritual health, and the desired ability to achieve the
national education goal” (Depdiknas 2005, p. 6). Although there appear to be no
guidelines as to teacher PD, it is evident from this chapter that mathematics teachers
do engage in PD mainly through two types of programs. The first are programs that
teachers attend outside of their schools that are often courses of study at institutions
of higher learning, training workshops and conferences. The two main institutes
that provide PD programs for mathematics teachers are the Educational Institute of
Quality Assurance and the Institute for Mathematics Teacher Training. The second
type allows teachers to engage in learning while carrying on with their duties in
school. The authors note that lesson study is a good form of activity for the second
type of program. The Japan International Cooperation Agency has been instru-
mental is initiating lesson study in Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Malang in Indonesia.
Takahashi in Chap. 4 describes lesson study as the fundamental driver for
mathematics teacher development in Japan. He outlines the three levels of expertise
of mathematics teachers and how lesson study develops teachers at Level 3, which is
beyond the scope of any teacher preparation programs in Japan. School-based
in-service training is a tradition and culture in Japanese schools, particularly lesson
study, during which teachers work collaboratively to develop their pedagogy (Centre
for Research on International Cooperation in Educational Development University
of Tsukuba [CRICED], n.d.). Although it is not mentioned in this chapter, a recent
development that has also fueled the development of teachers is the mandatory
6 Y.H. Leong et al.

Renewal System of Teachers’ Certificate introduced in 2009 (Ministry of Education,

Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology Japan [MEXT], n.d.). Every 10 years
teachers have to renew their practicing certificates and two years prior to the expi-
ration of the certificate they have to complete 30 h or more of “certificate renewal
courses” approved by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and
Technology (MEXT, n.d.). The 30 h are comprised of 12 h on core topics of
reflection on teachership and understanding how children change; trends in educa-
tional policies and coordination and cooperation in and out of school; and 18 h on
elective topics related to teaching subjects, guidance to students, and other topics to
enrich education (CRICED, n.d.).
From Chap. 5, Kwon, Park, Park, and Park state that teachers in Korea are
constantly developing themselves and that the excellent achievement of their stu-
dents in international benchmark studies such as TIMSS and PISA is a result of
teacher development. They must complete at least 90 h of PD activities to upgrade
their initial teaching certificate (usually within 3–4 years of their preservice train-
ing). Subsequently they are required to participate in PD activities every year (Sami
2013). In 1995, the New Educational Reform Plan was announced that requires that
in-service teachers must receive training at regular intervals. However, the plan did
not provide any mandatory details about the number of hours and regularity of the
intervals, such as every year or three years (Education Reform Commission 1996).
In recent years, the government has fully supported a minimum of 20 h of annual
PD for each teacher. However, most teachers attend 40–60 h of PD activities to
keep abreast of new developments in their fields of expertise.
In 2005, the OECD (2005) reported that teachers in Korea had a low rate of
participation in training programs. In response to the announcement of this finding,
the government made training programs mandatory. The Ministry of Education and
Science Technology (2010) enacted the development of teaching competence into a
law. A teacher evaluation system by students and parents was adopted. Teachers
whose student evaluation is 2.5 points or less out of a total of 5 points must undertake
30 h of training. In addition, as of 2011, teachers have to complete over 60 h of
on-the-job training per year, which is a feature of their performance-based pay.
Chiew and Lim in Chap. 6 state that mathematics teacher PD in Malaysia mainly
involves two types of activities. The first type is carried out by education agencies
of the Ministry of Education (MOE), which conducts in-service courses and
workshops for teachers to accomplish the requirements and changes in the math-
ematics curriculum. This is meant to ensure that teachers are competent to teach and
deliver what is prescribed in the curriculum. The second type is more autonomous
and allows teachers to take charge of their own development through
research-based projects such as action research and lesson study.
The MOE has begun to try to regulate teacher PD. The directive from the MOE
in 2005 mandating seven days of PD per year for teachers was not necessarily
subject pedagogy specific as the school leadership was empowered to decide on the
focus of the PD and often used it to address the general needs of their schools.
Recent developments arising from Malaysia’s participation in international
benchmark studies such as PISA and TIMSS has led the MOE to examine
1 Mathematics Teacher Professional Development … 7

mathematics instruction in schools. The findings show that there is a lack of an

acceptable standard of teaching in schools and thus the MOE (2012) is initiating a
reform to transform the landscape of Malaysian education system. This reform, the
Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2015, is mandating that teachers undergo
compulsory continuing PD. As the implementation of the blueprint is still in its
infancy, it may be too premature to say how mathematics teacher PD may change.
In the Philippines, as noted by Verzosa, Tulao-Fernando, and Vistro-Yu in
Chap. 7, the Department of Education mandates three to five days of PD every year
for all teachers. For some teachers this may be the only PD they undertake in the
year but may not support in them in their own subjects. Therefore, mathematics
teacher PD is often implemented outside of annual school INSET. There appear to
be many contexts and opportunities for mathematics teachers to engage in PD but
often they lacked long-term coherence.
Kaur and Wong in Chap. 8 recount how two national initiatives of the Ministry
of Education in Singapore, the Thinking Schools Learning Nation vision (Goh
1997) and the Teach Less Learn More initiative (Ministry of Education 2005), have
fueled teacher PD, including mathematics teacher PD. They outline how the sys-
temic infrastructure put in place by the Ministry of Education has facilitated
mathematics teacher PD. Mathematics teachers work and learn collaboratively in
the classroom while addressing issues related to the teaching and learning of
mathematics and being part of research projects and lesson study groups. They also
engage in PD activities to suit their individual needs. They attend higher degree
courses at universities in Singapore and elsewhere. They also participate in PD
activities conducted regularly by the Association of Mathematics Educators, the
Singapore Mathematical Society, and the Academy of Singapore Teachers.
In Taiwan, according to Lin and Chang in Chap. 9, the Education Act of 1996
stipulated that teachers must attend at least 18 h of PD per year or accumulate 90 h
over five-years. However, it did not specify any particular PD that teachers must
undertake. The act was repealed in 2003 and at present teacher PD is guided by
three policy directions: upgrading the academic qualifications of teachers through
master degrees, engaging teachers in lifelong learning through workshops and
sustained school-based projects addressing the needs of teachers so that they keep
abreast of educational issues and reforms and using technology to provide a
one-stop resource to support teachers in their professional learning. Since 2003 the
decreasing emphasis on the number of hours of PD per year or over a period of five
years signals a positive development in teacher PD in Taiwan. Teachers are
empowered to take charge of their lifelong learning in the spirit of professionalism.

1.3 Innovative PD Programs in Asia

Part II consists of seven chapters that showcase innovative approaches to mathe-

matics teacher PD in five Asian countries: India, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, and
Taiwan. Table 1.2 shows some of the common characteristics of their approaches.
8 Y.H. Leong et al.

Table 1.2 Characteristics of PD approaches

Participants Site Model of PD Key attributes of PD
program
Country In-service Teachers’ Cascade Hybrid— Situated Community
teachers classrooms Traininga + work in learning of practice
classrooms of teachers
p p p p p
India ✕
p p p p p
Korea ✕
p p p p p
Pakistan ✕
p p p p p
Singapore-1 ✕
p p p p p
Singapore-2 ✕
p p p p p
Taiwan-1 ✕
and 2
a
Training here refers to sharing or co-construction of knowledge by experts with teachers in the PD program
p
denotes applicable; ✕ denotes not applicable

From Table 1.2 it is apparent that all six PD programs detailed in Chaps. 10–16
(note that Chaps. 15 and 16 are different aspects of the same project in Taiwan) have
similar characteristics, such as the participation of in-service teachers, the location of
the PD in teachers’ classrooms, the PD model being a hybrid where experts share or
co-construct knowledge with teachers who integrate the knowledge into their
classroom practices either simultaneously or after class, and the key attributes of the
PD programs being situated learning and community of practice of teachers. None of
the PD programs adopted the “cascade model” (Kumar et al. 2015); instead all of
them were of the hybrid model type (Kaur 2011), which draws on the “training
model of PD” (Matos et al. 2009) and supports teachers in integrating knowledge
from experts or that which has been co-constructed into their classroom practice.
This exemplifies a critical development in teacher PD in Asia. This development
reflects a gradual shift in the center of gravity away from university-based,
supply-side, off-line forms of knowledge production conducted by university
researchers for teachers toward emergent school-based, demand-side, on-line, in situ
forms of knowledge production by teachers with support from university scholars.
A synopsis of the innovative approaches to PD follows. Kumar and
Subramaniam in Chap. 10 present a case study of an in-service teacher who par-
ticipated in a PD program highlighting the constraints and affordances in bringing
about shifts in the teacher’s practice toward developing reasoning in mathematics.
The PD program consisted of a training portion of workshops conducted by the
university scholars, followed by collaboration with the teachers in their classrooms,
and finally teachers in the PD program developing fellow teachers in their school
who were not in the PD program. The nature of the PD program facilitated learning
within the community of practice, which was comprised of teachers, teacher-
educators, and researchers. This study shows promise in the potential for devel-
oping communities of practice to engage in the enterprise of analyzing and
developing teaching of mathematics in schools.
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 We learnt this lesson through sad experience, the loss of a dearly
loved little Irish terrier, who marched always on his own feet. He had
lived in perfect health for four years in India, and had even
weathered eight months in Sierra Leone, but died in Lokoja, after
three months almost continuous touring in the bush.
Since then our dogs have never been allowed to run; we have had
two carried all the way from Zungeru to Katāgum and back, a
distance of eight hundred miles. They very soon got accustomed to
the confinement; one was usually carried on the saddle of one of our
mounted servants, and, after a few days, he learnt to appreciate the
arrangement and to jump up at the pony, begging to be picked up
as soon as the sun got hot. The other dog, a bull-terrier, had an
ordinary square provision box filled with grass, its cover, a native-
made wicker basket, having a small goat-skin fastened just on the
top to keep off the sun. The cover fitted loosely, admitting plenty of
air and was easily secured to the box by a few strings. After the dog
had run three or four miles in the fresh early morning, and hunted
and amused himself to his heart’s content, he was usually very ready
to pack himself into his box, especially as there were invariably a few
toothsome bones to be found there, and he then slept peacefully in
it, until his carrier dumped him down in camp.
The feeding of dogs is naturally a great factor in the preservation
of their health, and it will require supervision. The main difficulty is
to give them sufficient bulk of food without including too much
meat; here, we have no fresh potatoes, etc., and porridge becomes
rather an expensive article of dietary, as oatmeal costs a shilling for
a small tin, which disappears at once! I have been told that two
large dogs required a tin of oatmeal and a tin of army rations daily
to feed them. I think they must have become very bilious bull-
terriers, and a serious item of expense to their owner! We allow
threepence a day per dog; this buys a piece of meat and some bone,
also a fair quantity of ‘gari’ (native flour). The gari is well boiled with
the meat, and appears looking like a brownish sago pudding. The
mixture is then flooded with milk and much appreciated by the dogs.
Every few days a little powdered sulphur is mixed up with the feed,
and is highly beneficial. Afterwards, they get their bones, and the
fare seems to suit them admirably. We always make a point of giving
our dogs, especially young puppies, weak tea if they will drink it. In
India I was told that it would prevent distemper altogether, and,
though I cannot vouch for the truth of this, it seems to be a
harmless little indulgence, and every mistress will, I expect, like to
see the little wistful faces asking ever so plainly for a saucer of tea.
Dogs are all the better for a dose of castor oil about once a week;
it improves their appearance and condition immensely, and it is a
perfectly simple matter administering it—when one knows how—so a
short explanation of the process may not be misplaced here. One
person, kneeling down, holds the dog’s body firmly between his
knees to prevent him from backing, and, putting his left forefinger
gently into the corner of the dog’s lips, pulls out his cheek, forming a
sort of pocket into which the oil is gently poured by another person,
thus avoiding all forcing open of the teeth and the consequent
struggle and horrors of spilt oil. As a rule the patient does not object
in the least; the oil quietly filters through his teeth, and down his
throat; if he does not seem to be swallowing it readily a little
pressure on his nostrils closes them, and compels him to open his
throat. When a dog’s coat becomes ‘staring,’ his eyes lustreless, and
he appears generally spiritless and feverish, castor oil is indicated,
after which quinine must be given—five grains daily is not too much
—until he recovers. One of our dogs swallowed a tabloid of quinine,
wrapped in a slice of meat, every day, without detecting its
presence; but some are tiresome in this respect, and the only
alternative is to open their mouths and drop in a salt-spoonful of
sulphate of quinine. This they cannot get rid of except by swallowing
it, and the bitter taste is soon forgotten in the joy of a rewarding tit-
bit of some sort. We had a small fox-terrier who knew the very sight
of the quinine bottle, and bolted at once out of the room! The
foregoing suggestions, however, are intended only for occasions
when the dog’s owner is quite convinced that treatment of this kind
is absolutely necessary; failing that, I would most earnestly say,
leave drugs alone, merely permit no neglect, for, assuredly, a
comfortable dog will be a healthy dog!
Another point of the utmost importance to a dog’s well-being and
comfort, is to keep him, as far as possible, free from fleas and ticks.
Fleas, I suppose, dogs will have for all time, no matter how carefully
they are washed and brushed; the great enemy in Nigeria is the tick.
During the rains the grass swarms with them, and, as one cannot
walk along a bush path for a hundred yards without finding several
of them on one’s skirts, the number acquired by the dogs on a ten
minutes’ hunt after a mouse or a lizard can be well imagined. Each
dog must be most carefully searched and the pests removed at least
twice a day, special care being taken to inspect the inside of his
ears, the little ‘pocket’ on them, between his toes, and underneath
his collar. There is none so wily as the dog tick in choosing secluded
nooks in which to suck his victim’s blood. The inside of the dog’s
ears should be smeared over with carbolic or sulphur ointment
applied with a feather; both are abhorrent to ticks, and it is really a
kindness to rub his whole body lightly with these ointments or a very
weak solution of creolin or ‘Jeyes’ Fluid.’ It will be found that flies
attack and bite dogs’ ears to a quite serious extent; I have seen
native dogs with their ears positively eaten away, but this can, of
course, be prevented by persistent care and perseverance. Carbolic
or sulphur ointment must be rubbed on thickly, daily, and at night-
time, but unless notice is taken of the very first few bites, it is most
difficult to effect a cure.

Poultry

The keeping of poultry is certain to become, in the near future, a

feature of every English household in Nigeria, therefore the subject
may as well have its place in this chapter, though I do not, in the
least, feel qualified to offer any ‘counsels of perfection,’ as, so far, we
have been able to make only two efforts to introduce English fowls
into this country, and I must frankly confess that there are many
difficulties in the way of a complete success.
 However, the class of fowl bred in the country is such a wretched
one, the birds are small, skinny and tasteless, and the eggs no larger
than bantams’, that the importation of good breeds is a very real
necessity. Here, as in other matters, the periodical leave to England
after twelve or eighteen months has prevented the rearing of
chickens from being very seriously undertaken, but I have a strong
impression that if every one will, at all events, ‘make a start,’ the
good work will be carried on, and it will not be long before the
miserable ‘country fowl’ is a thing of the past.
My personal experience on the subject of English fowls is as
follows:—Five years ago, we brought out four Black Minorca hens
and one cock; the latter died shortly after his arrival in Nigeria, but,
on our way up country, we had the good luck to be presented with a
very fine Plymouth Rock cock. The hens behaved beautifully; they
travelled in a large wicker basket, and regularly laid eggs in it during
the daily march. A fortnight later, alas! the Plymouth Rock died, and
two hens succumbed also, all dying from the same complaint,
dysentery. After six months, we brought our remaining two hens
back to Lokoja, and they survived for the rest of the tour, but they
greatly deteriorated, both in their appearance and in their laying, the
eggs diminished in size and lost their flavour.
On our return from leave, we brought a fresh consignment of
fowls, and if I call them ‘a mixed lot’ it is not intended altogether as
a term of disparagement, for we had purposely selected mixed
breeds. A fine Buff Orpington cock with a slight Black Minorca strain,
two Black Minorca hens, a handsome Houdan hen, and two highly
indiscriminate ‘would-be’ Orpington hens made up the party. Further
fortified by an incubator, a kindly gift of Sir Alfred Jones, we fared
forth to Bussa, firmly intent on poultry rearing.
This time, our efforts were distinctly successful; in six months our
stock of six had increased to twenty-three, and had it not been for
the persistent and endless depredations of hawks, we should have
reared a far greater number. We found the Houdan an admirable and
devoted mother, and her progeny were our delight, so handsome
were they, with a slight Orpington strain added to their own
beautiful spangles and jet-black crest. Before a year was out all the
original hens except one died, quite suddenly and mysteriously,
pointing to poisonous food or snake-bite; but still, to-day, I am glad
to think that we have distributed four fine English cocks in different
parts of the country, and have, at all events, contributed our mite to
the all-important task of improving the food supply in this country. It
is not in the least sublime to say that empires are built on men’s
stomachs, but, indeed, they form a surer foundation than their
gravestones to my un-soaring mind!
The incubator—owing to our peculiar circumstances—but to no
fault of its own, was not a great success. Our manner of living was,
however, exceptional, and did not give the incubator a ghost of a
chance. During the day the lamp could not be lighted at all, and in
spite of all ventilation, etc., the atmospheric heat in the room itself
ran the thermometer higher than it should be. Almost every night
violent gusts of wind, sweeping through the house, extinguished the
lamp two or three times, thoroughly chilling the eggs. Another
difficulty was the obtaining of really fresh eggs; the only successful
hatchings I accomplished were with guinea-fowls and eggs obtained
from our own hens: but, as the action of the incubator was so
uncertain, we were reluctant to risk many eggs, when the hens were
ready and willing to sit. It was, however, a great amusement and
delight to us, and the hatching process was one of absorbing
interest—to our native friends it appeared a piece of paralyzing Ju-ju
—the newly born chick gracefully dropping from the tray above to
the softer floor below with a comical air of bewilderment and
surprise! Under more normal circumstances I am certain that
incubators (which can now be bought very cheap) would be of the
greatest value in chicken rearing out here: a ‘foster-mother’ or
‘breeder’ is quite necessary to avoid the terrible infant mortality
resulting from careless mothers and prowling hawks.
Far the easiest and most paying is the rearing of ducks; they give
no trouble, and seem to require none of the coaxing and attention
apparently necessary for the hens; quite quietly they appear to
make their own arrangements, and in due time emerge with an
eminently attractive and satisfactory family of sixteen or
thereabouts. Except for a tendency to walk the babies off their legs,
ducks are devoted and excellent mothers.
An extremely useful scrap of knowledge we have picked up, is,
when the hatch is due, or nearly so, to seize the opportunity, when
the hen or duck is off the nest, to immerse the eggs gently in hot
water (105°); almost immediately the ‘live’ eggs begin to roll about
and dance in the most exciting fashion, and those which, after a few
minutes, make no movement at all may be safely considered as
‘wrong’ and removed from the hatch, as their presence is injurious to
the hatching chicks, and embarrassing to the mother.
I have found that the chief difficulty lies in finding enough boiled
food for the fowls; the victims of dysentery undoubtedly got the
disease from eating too much whole grain, but it is a grave problem
to give them enough of anything else. There is, at present, in this
country, nothing available to answer to the regular ‘chicken’s food’
mixture, provided at home, consisting of boiled turnip cuttings,
potato peelings, cabbage leaves, sharps, etc. Perhaps when our
vegetable gardens are on a firmer basis we shall be able to lavish
green food on our fowls; at present, there are but boiled yams and
sweet potatoes to be had, but the fowls do not take kindly to them,
nor to boiled rice, which, by the way, does not agree with them. On
the whole, I think they prefer boiled gari to any other cooked food; I
have seen them enthusiastic over aggidi (a native food) mixed up
with maize and a few odds and ends from the breakfast table.
Guinea-corn thus becomes their staple article of diet, and it is only
by giving them full liberty all day long, and allowing them to procure
their own grass and insect food, that the enemy, dysentery, is
avoided.
We were wrong, I suppose, in selecting Black Minorcas, from a
sitting point of view, as I believe that, even at home, they are non-
sitters, and they certainly are in Nigeria! However, with an incubator
this is a matter of no importance, and it would be difficult to find a
more satisfactory breed from a laying point of view. I should say,
most decidedly, that Dorkings or Plymouth Rocks would be found
excellent breeds to bring to this country, the latter being good sitters
and a hardy breed; but they must be kept free from damp, which is,
I fancy, the cause of their frequently contracting disease in the legs
and feet. I have also heard an authority on different sorts of poultry
describe Dorkings as ‘the very best breed for amateur poultry
keepers,’ they are excellent mothers, and quite the best kind for
table purposes.
I cannot feel that I am able to give any very practical advice on
this subject; my own experience has been too limited to build a
theory on, but as the chicken, in one guise or another, is bound to
appear so frequently on our tables, it is more than advisable, it
becomes a positive duty, to endeavour to encourage all newcomers
to help, by importing fowls from England, to improve the Nigerian
species. When next I come out I shall certainly bring a collection of
Dorkings and another incubator, for it is worth remembering that the
hen of the country is such a tiny creature that she cannot possibly
cover more than three or four good-sized eggs.
I also cherish golden dreams of bringing out English geese, as I
believe they would succeed, and repay, a hundred-fold, the trouble
of bringing them. Geese are less troublesome to feed than fowls, as
they find so much for themselves roaming about; they are also good
sitters (I am speaking of the white Embden geese), and, of course, a
great delicacy for the table. They should be brought out in the
proportion of two geese to one gander.
It is, perhaps, worth mentioning that bringing out live stock entails
little or no trouble; any large dealer will ship the birds in strong
coops with a supply of grain for the voyage, and their owner will find
them established on deck, and requiring nothing more than a daily
visit, and a little arrangement with the ship’s cook or butcher, as to
their cleanliness and a small supply of boiled food. These good folks
are so accustomed to the care of all kinds of live stock, domestic and
wild, being carried to and from West Africa, from a full-grown giraffe
to tiny gazelles, no larger than a rabbit, that they are invariably most
ready and willing to supervise anything of the sort.
All this considered, I am sure that every one will agree with me
that it is worth while giving a trial to imported live stock for the
farm-yard; my ambition even soars—in secret, and in fear and
trembling—to the importation of a few rabbits, for experimental
purposes. I am aware that the indiscriminate introduction of rabbits
has caused unpopularity elsewhere before now, but I should suggest
their being kept in confinement at first, and I should not think that
the provision of green food need be a difficulty, as they would
almost certainly enjoy the young leaves of Indian Corn, which can be
grown anywhere. I will venture, finally, to say, that, in my opinion,
the humble bunny would prove a most welcome addition to the
Nigerian menu!

Cows

To mention the subject of dairy management may seem rather

unnecessary, and cause a smile when it is realized that cows cannot
be persuaded to live and flourish in Lokoja, or any of the southern
districts of Nigeria, and that for the most part one’s sole anxiety, as a
dairy expert, consists in the selection of sound tins of preserved
milk! But, as the joys of possessing one’s own cows, and obtaining a
sufficiency of milk, cream, and butter, can be realized by those
whom kindly Fortune allows to live in the Hausa States, far removed
from the deadly Coast, and further north still, it seems to me as well
to set forth my own very small experience in the matter.
My first step towards keeping cows—and that a veritable step in
the dark—was the selection of a churn. At this point, the eternal
difficulty of transport loomed into view as uncompromisingly as
usual, and I decided on a small tin, plunge churn. It consisted of a
tin cylinder about eighteen inches long, and four inches in diameter,
with a cover, through which passed a tin plunger, with flanges at the
lower end. This churn has the advantage of being very light and
portable, and we found it a complete success; it was perfectly easy
to clean, and did its work most rapidly, turning out a pound of butter
in fifteen minutes.
The next necessary point is to possess your own cows; the usual
plan of receiving a daily dole of a bottle full of milk, Heaven knows
how or where obtained, cannot be sufficiently condemned. Out of
my own experience I have known the simple Fulani cow-keeper to
half fill the basin before milking with extremely dirty water, and this I
only discovered by the merest accident. One would hardly expect to
find such up-to-date practices as ‘watering the milk’ in Nigeria, but it
is done!
I know that milch cows are not at all easy to come by out here;
the Fulani, the only herdsman in the country, knows the value of his
stock, and will not sell, for there is a tremendous trade done in the
markets in sour milk and rancid butter.
I started with a stock of five cows, each with a small calf, and in
full milk: I then, with a lamentable want of foresight and proper
humility, decided on, and attempted to carry out all kinds of
innovations and dairy principles, such as separating the calves from
the cows, endeavouring to pacify the former with milk mixed with
dusa (bran)—which I could never induce them to touch—and
treating in a high-handed manner the remonstrances of the mai-
sanu (cowman or head dairymaid). I may say at once it was a dead
failure; the cows went off their milk immediately, and from all of
them I did not get more than a quart twice daily, and the mai-sanu
ran away, appalled at my wicked violation of immemorial customs!
My courage, born of ignorance, ran into the soles of my shoes, I
obtained a new mai-sanu, and, bowing my head in chastened
submission, I resigned into his hands the whole outside
arrangements of the ‘dairy,’ only stipulating that his hands should be
scrupulously clean before milking, and the udders wiped with a
damp clean cloth—also that he should produce a large basin full of
milk morning and evening. This was done; how and when the calves
were tied or separated, I did not inquire. I am quite sure that, one
day, a more strong-minded and conscientious fellow-country-woman
will know all about it, and reform things magnificently; meantime—
cleanliness and purity assured—I was content to leave ‘pretty well’
alone, and let the mai-sanu make his own arrangements.
The cows of Northern Nigeria are splendid animals, of great size,
with enormous branching horns, but their udders are very small, and
English dairy folks would doubtless smile at the idea of extracting
milk at the rate of one quart only, daily, per cow! But so it was, and
when due allowance is made for inferior grazing and the dry season,
perhaps it was not so astonishing. At any rate, the supply proved
ample for our requirements, so I felt it would be both ungracious
and foolish to grumble. I found the milk very rich and delicious, and
from the special pan set aside each evening for cream to set, a good
pint and a half of thick cream was forthcoming the next morning,
yielding roughly a pound of excellent butter. There was always
cream for the porridge at breakfast, plenty for puddings and
mayonnaises, and even for cream cheeses, which I made every few
days.
Our energetic D.S.C. (Captain Burnside) training bullocks. (p. 236)
 Giant Sunflowers at Bussa. (p. 243)

We marched our cows down country from Katāgum on our return,

and they gave us a capital supply of milk on the road; but, once
established in Lokoja, they fell off in appearance and milk. The
calves sickened and died, as well as the cows, and, much to our
sorrow, we had to recognize that, obviously, the only thing to do was
to dispose of the remainder, alas! to become tough beef in the
market. It was, I suppose, inevitable, owing to the total change of
diet to green, luxurious grass, which the cows devoured eagerly, to
their own undoing; but I parted very sadly from my philanthropic
dream of providing the English community in Lokoja with a regular
supply of fresh milk, etc. It was a plan I had very much at heart, and
I have not altogether forsaken it, but I quite recognize that it cannot
be done with the Hausa cow.
It is a matter for great regret, this difficulty of keeping cows alive
in Lokoja; many a ‘bad case’ in hospital longs for fresh milk—as
unobtainable, unfortunately, as ripe strawberries or blocks of ice.
Possibly, one fine, very fine day, when, in our wisdom, we remove
our cantonment to the breezy heights of the Patti plateau (six
hundred feet above, and perfectly accessible), all these good things
may be ours. Meantime, unless you are going to the Hausa States,
and away north, the only dairy equipment you will need to bring is—
a tin-opener!
 CHAPTER IV
The Garden
I remember that my opinion of the possibilities of gardening
successfully in Northern Nigeria expressed itself in three stages:
first, on arrival, with joyful confidence: ‘I am certain anything will
grow out here!’ Secondly, after six months, in despair: ‘Nothing will
grow out here!’ Thirdly, after a year, with renewed but chastened
cheerfulness: ‘Some things will do all right!’
The subject was more or less unexplored ground when I arrived in
the country five years ago; I could get little or no gardening
information, except that one or two enterprising spirits had tried—
and failed. Perhaps the chief reason for this was that the amount of
work to be got through in each day makes it practically impossible
for any Government official to give the personal attention absolutely
necessary to the making of a garden.
The country produces no native gardeners, similar to the mali of
India; the utmost one can extract from the local artist is that he will
scratch up weeds and grass, and faithfully water everything daily in
the dry season. The tour of service of from twelve to eighteen
months, followed by leave home and an uncertain prospect of
returning to the same station, has, I suppose, prevented any
attempt at all being made in the majority of cases, and the very few
spots that have been started as gardens seem to have flourished
until their owners left, when they were utterly neglected, the bush
claimed its own, and all traces of cultivation vanished far quicker
than they had appeared.
But now that things are progressing generally in Nigeria, life
conditions improving somewhat, and each station containing a larger
number of white men, willing to carry on each others’ labours in this
line, the gardening problem comes nearer solution, though I fancy
that, for all time, it will need a stout heart and endless perseverance.
 The Flower Garden

The first ‘don’t’ that occurs to me under this heading is on the

subject of English out-door flowers. One’s natural instinct is to try
and surround oneself with the old favourites, sweet-peas,
mignonette, poppies and pinks, but the attempt, I fear, is sheer
waste of time and trouble; hardly any will come to maturity and
blossom in the verandah; they will grow up cheerfully to a certain
point, then wither off, and transplanting seedlings in the open is out
of the question, unless permanent shade can be given.
I think I can claim to have given them a fair trial—I brought out
the usual ‘collection’ from England, made experimental sowings in
boxes on the verandah, nursed and watched them tenderly, but I got
no results in the blossom line except from the convolvulus. I then
tried a collection from a French firm, and from these seeds, I
succeeded in coaxing blossoms, from zinnias, marigolds,
nasturtiums, balsams and petunias—the rest were a complete
failure.
My third experiment was with acclimatized seeds from India, and
these gave far the best results. The first success was a splendid bed
of portulacca, blazing with crimson, white, mauve and gold, rejoicing
in the sun which shrivelled everything else. I should like every one to
make a point of raising this beautiful little flower, for it is easily
grown, and gives a real reward for very little trouble. It should be
sown at the end of the rains, in boxes on the verandah, sheltered
until the little plants look sturdy and fleshy, then planted out in bed
or border, and shaded from the sun for a day or two, until growth is
started, the plants will then begin to spread and blossom into a
carpet of glowing colour.
Balsams, marigolds, sunflowers, vinca and zinnias will do well
sown out in the open, under moderate shade, especially the last-
named; the finest zinnias I have ever seen were a bunch presented
to me out of a bachelor’s little garden at Zaria. Sunflowers attain an
immense height and blossom magnificently; I had huge plants,
almost trees, at Bussa, fourteen and sixteen feet high, bearing
masses of flowers. Balsams I have always been a little contemptuous
over, but the best double kinds are well worth while cultivating. A
special packet from Sutton, called, I think, ‘Rose,’ gave splendid
results, thick clusters of delicate rosy pink blossoms, resembling pink
carnations or rosettes of chiffon, flowered in one bed continuously
from July to December, and established themselves on the firmest
basis in my affections. All varieties of convolvulus can be sown
outside, and will climb and twine and riot delightfully everywhere,
clothing hideous walls and bare fences. In Lokoja I have taken great
pains to cultivate freely that most charming creeper, the sapphire
blue Clitoria, a climbing pea of the greatest beauty, and a free
grower, bringing, in the first instance, twenty seeds from
Government House in Sierra Leone! It has rewarded my efforts so
well that now no one need want for quantities of seed; there is also
a white variety which is just as beautiful and satisfactory. Cannas
flourish, and make capital patches of colour, the finer kinds, some of
which are very gorgeous, doing just as well as the ordinary scarlet
sort, which grows all over the country, and from the seeds of which
Mahomedan rosaries are made. Phloxes, nasturtiums and asters can
be induced to flower with a good deal of preliminary care and
watering; but those who, not unnaturally, desire to achieve the
maximum result with the minimum effort, will do well to concentrate
their endeavours on zinnias and sunflowers, especially the single
Japanese sunflowers, as they are eminently decorative. Vinca is a
flower which might be dubbed uninteresting, but it has a special
virtue, that of blossoming practically all the year round, and being
available, when everything else is shrivelled and dead, in the dryest
season.
Another public benefactor is salpiglossis, an exquisite plant with
velvety glowing flowers of all shades—no well-regulated Nigerian
garden should be without it.
To my mind the wild flowers of the country are by no means to be
despised in the garden, many are really extremely beautiful; all are
indigenous to the soil and therefore no trouble to grow, and I
believe that the main reason that they are not more frequently seen
in gardens is that the gardeners have never had the opportunity of
noticing them in the ‘bush.’
There is a splendid coreopsis with golden daisy-like blossoms
some three or four inches in diameter, the seed of which I gathered
on the march a year ago, and subsequently sowed in large round
beds. The result was a perfectly glorious blaze of brilliant yellow
blossoms for weeks together, when the rains had finished. Terrestrial
orchids in their mauve, purple, yellow and green beauty would be
exquisite dotting the grass, as would the crimson and white striped
lilies, fragile babianas, and the lesser gloriosa, which is not a
creeper. A tiny scarlet salvia has often appealed to me and the little
plant, Striga Senegalensis, would form a carpet of deep cool mauve,
delightful to see.

The Lawn

It is said to be very dear to the heart of every Englishman to own

a lawn, and it certainly should be doubly so to John Bull in exile; in a
tropical country well-kept turf is much to be desired, there is nothing
so cool and refreshing to tired eyes dazzled with the glare of
sunshine and baked earth, and, perhaps, nothing that gives such a
home-like and cared-for look to a West African compound. This
demesne is usually reclaimed bush, which in nature grows rank,
reed-like, coarse grass, and the ground destined for a lawn must be
thoroughly and deeply dug up. It is worse than useless to attempt to
remove it by merely pulling up the grass. After digging and turning,
all the roots must be picked out most carefully, for it is indeed
heartbreaking to see the enemy reappearing all over your infant
lawn.
If the fine short grass, called in India ‘dhoob’ grass, can be found
in the neighbourhood, and it usually can be, especially along the
edges of roads, it should be brought in quantities (with its roots),
planted closely in tiny bunches all over the prepared ground,
watered daily, patted down to encourage spreading, and your lawn
will be fairly started. Another method is to chop up the grass in
lengths of about four inches, mix it with good soil and water, and
spread the mixture all over the lawn, but, on the whole, I think the
planting will be found most satisfactory. If ‘dhoob’ grass is not to be
had, English grass seed must be sown, but this is an experiment I
have never had occasion to make. I have seen what is called
Bahama grass grown with great success in Sierra Leone, and
fashioned into lovely velvety croquet lawns.

Trees and Shrubs

The planting of useful and ornamental trees is no less than a

positive duty incumbent on every householder in West Africa; they
are infinitely less trouble, and give far more lasting satisfaction than
flower growing; besides, even in this most selfish of all selfish
countries, it behoves us all to think of those who will come after us,
and not neglect to plant a mango stone because we ourselves may
scarcely hope to gather fruit from the tree that will result. I do not
think I am exaggerating when I say that I suppose that every
flowering tree and shrub in Lokoja, and many in Zungeru, owes its
existence to the wise labours of those ‘old hands’ who, years ago,
planted out the ground around the old Preparanda with trees, from
which innumerable cuttings have been obtained; at all events, I have
never forgotten to feel grateful to them.
Orange and lime trees grow readily from pips, mangoes and date
palms from stones, pineapples can be raised from the leafy crowns
on the fruit, paw-paws spring up wherever the seeds are scattered,
but they, like bananas, are not ornamental, and should be relegated
to the back garden.
During the rainy season slips of flowering trees and shrubs never
fail to strike; ‘frangipani’ with rosy blossoms and delicious scent,
Poinciana Regia, better known as ‘flamboyant’ on account of its regal
scarlet flowers, three kinds of acacias, red, yellow and white,
fragrant rose-coloured oleanders, and many others, can be put in
wherever your fancy dictates, and will certainly reward your patience
—usually by endeavouring to flower before putting out a single leaf!
There is a delightful, sweet-scented golden allamanda, growing in
sturdy bushes, and forming an ideal hedge, as it is loaded with
blossom for more than half the year. Another somewhat similar
flower is Thevetia, which sows itself pertinaciously from its
poisonous seeds, and Tabernaemontana is another most decorative
shrubby plant, with shining dark foliage, and a flower resembling a
gardenia.
Nigeria abounds in indigenous blossoming trees and creepers, all
beautiful, and mostly sweet-scented, from the gorgeous Spathodea
Nilotica, Erythrina and Kigelia Africana downwards; indeed, no one
who travels about with open eyes can fail to acquire enough seeds,
pods and stones to plant acres with beauty and fragrance; day after
day, on the march, I have filled my pockets.
The bush, too, is full of flowers well worth cultivating, as I have
before remarked. There are creepers and climbing plants
innumerable, including Mussaenda elegans, bearing handsome
flame-coloured blossoms, crimson Caconia paniculata, Strophanthus
with its fantastic, trailing creamy petals, delicate asparagus fern, and
Landolphia owariensis (the rubber vine), queen of climbers, a sheet
of snow-white, intensely fragrant flowers. And if Landolphia is the
queen of climbers, surely the king is a gorgeous apricot-hued
Gloriosa Superba, which fastens its delicate persistent tendrils round
every available support, and when the flowering season is over is
beautiful still with bursting pods full of scarlet seeds. In the forest,
beside the river one finds clerodendron, bryophyllum, quisqualis, and
a thousand others; indeed, I only wish I had enough botanical
knowledge to name half the native flowers and trees I have raised
from seed collected casually on the march.

The Verandah Garden

 Perhaps the verandah garden is one’s dearest and closest interest;
wise people may shake their heads, and mutter about the number of
mosquitoes attracted by the watering of ferns and flowers, but, after
all, when there are at least two millions of mosquitoes about, a
thousand more or less makes very little difference, and I am certain
no Englishwoman in Africa will forgo her verandah garden for so
trifling a reason!
I have had orchids and ferns, all varieties of so-called crotons, for
they are really codeums, hundreds of sturdy little orange trees,
raised from pips collected at the luncheon table, cannas and
caladiums, and tubs of the invaluable aromatic-scented occimum
viride, whose virtues saved us endless annoyance from mosquitoes.
Here a few English flowers blossomed, one tiny rose bush, petunias,
balsams, Japanese sunflowers, etc., creepers of all kinds flourished,
sky-blue, rose-coloured and yellow convolvuli climbing and clasping
the verandah posts, sapphire blue clitoria twisting and twining in
beautiful confusion, mingled with a brilliant scarlet convolvulus-like
climber, while tiny, starry Ipomea quamoclit, crimson and white,
wound slender feathery arms round every available twig and stem.
The bath-water must be kept every morning to water the
verandah garden, the soapiness and especially the suspicion of
Scrubbs ammonia, if that is used, are most beneficial, and by doing
the watering yourself you can ensure a due proportion and see that
ferns are not starved while seedlings are drowned.
I have always longed to have real roses in my verandah garden,
but I fear they would but add one more to the long list of
disappointments. Though they do well in Southern Nigeria, I have so
far seen only one rose tree here at Zungeru; it was growing an
immense height, full of green leaves and long stalks, an infallible
sign that the general temperature is too high, and its blossoms have
been few and poor. Still, I believe with much care and pruning the
more delicate kinds might succeed; I hope to try one day. Last year I
devoted my energies to the cultivation of geraniums and
pelargoniums, which were only a partial success, but were
handicapped by being carried about the country. I also experimented
with tuberoses, which were an immense success, growing freely as if
they really liked the soil and temperature. I have great hopes that
the more delicate bulbous plants will flourish in Nigeria during the
rains, therefore I have included a few of them in the list at the end
of this chapter.

The Vegetable Garden

It seems to me a matter for the gravest regret that the culture of

vegetables is not more seriously undertaken in this country where
fresh vegetables are so essential to health, and such a priceless
addition to the daily menu of tough and tasteless meat. To any one
who has lived in the tiniest Indian station, and seen the Government
garden supplying each household with an enormous basket of
vegetables for the noble sum of 1s. 6d. per month, it seems as
incredible as it is almost criminal that West Africa is not as well
catered for; it could be done, as many private gardens in the country
have amply proved, but—it is not done! To quote Major Ronald Ross:
—‘Government sometimes maintains, at considerable cost, botanical
gardens for various economical purposes. I was told that these
gardens used to grow vegetables for the Europeans, until stopped by
a mandate from England, on the ground that a Government botanist
is not a market gardener!’ Comment is quite needless, but there is
some comfort in reflecting that if we cannot all soar to the giddy
eminence of a ‘Government botanist’ we may yet emulate, more or
less, the humble market gardener, and to this end I am offering my
small experience in this line.
Our Gardener at play. (p. 250)
 ‘Jewel’ and ‘Brown Mouse.’ (p. 258)

Growing vegetables is, to my mind, the most satisfactory part of

garden work in West Africa; the percentage of failures is certainly
smaller, and the results so entirely to be desired. But, like the rest of
your garden, it will have to be made before you can set to work to
grow vegetables. Divide the ground into beds as long as space will
allow, and not more than three feet wide, with paths between. Every
bed must have a roof or shelter, consisting of matting or palm
branches, fastened to uprights four or five feet high, and the earth
must be well banked up so as to be quite a foot above the ground
level.
 Vegetables do best when sown in September, when the heaviest
rains are over, though a few kinds can be sown even in the dry
season with some success if care and regular watering are given to
them; I have sown vegetables in May, August and December, always
with satisfactory results, my object being to secure fresh vegetables
nearly all the year round.
The most important factor in the success of the vegetable garden
(and, indeed, amongst the flowers too) is that the seed should be
quite fresh from England. A small quantity arriving twice a year will
give far better results than one of the large ‘collections’ which,
moreover, invariably contain many items that are quite useless in this
country. I had a huge tin of vegetable seeds given me last year—a
precious prize—only to find, to my dismay, that it consisted mainly of
strawberries and peas! I have heard of English peas being grown
and eaten in the Bornu country; my own experience has been that
they grow most hopefully until they are about two feet high, they
then begin to wither off and disappear.
Tomatoes will be found to succeed admirably; if they are inclined
to grow too luxuriantly and to run to leaf rather than to fruit, this
can be checked by cutting off half the leaves and snipping away
many of the flowers. I have never seen better tomatoes than those
grown in Nigeria.
French beans and scarlet runners are most successful; the young
plants of the latter shoot up in the most amazing ‘Jack and the
Beanstalk’ fashion, and the dwarf beans are quite loaded with beans
six weeks after sowing.
Cucumbers give excellent results, also vegetable marrows. These
should be sown in boxes on the verandah, and planted out when
they attain the dignity of four leaves. Let them be planted close to
the uprights so that they can commence climbing at once instead of
sprawling along the ground. I found it quite a good plan at Bussa to
plant these vegetables out beside a low clay wall, and, after
assisting them to reach the top, to leave them to their own devices;
it was always an amusement to hunt for and happen upon
unexpected ripe cucumbers!
Lettuces, radishes and cress may all be relied upon, also spinach
(the native sort) and carrots; kohl rabi, the turnip-rooted cabbage, is
a most excellent and useful vegetable eaten quite young; we found
it one of our best crops, and beyond the thinning out required no
attention at all. My beet-root, cabbages, Brussels sprouts and
rhubarb all failed, but that I strongly suspect was in some degree
due to the incursions of greedy fowls. In this connexion, I may
mention that a low close railing, made even of guinea-corn stalks, is
most useful to fence in each bed if there is a farm-yard loose in the
compound.
English potatoes have been grown at Zungeru, I believe, but
rather as an interesting experiment than as an article of diet. Onions
are so extensively grown by the natives that they are hardly required
in the garden, except the tiny spring onions for use in a salad.
I do not think it is widely enough known that, when English
vegetables are ‘out’ the native bean (wake) if gathered very, very
young, is practically indistinguishable from French beans, and a
tuber (tumuku) in appearance and taste closely resembles new
potatoes; both plants grow like weeds and are immensely prolific; I
have seen fifty pounds of tumukus gathered from seven plants!
I should say, from my study of the climatic effect on plants
generally, that hardly any of the really hardy English vegetables
would ever reward one for the trouble of growing them in Nigeria,
such as cauliflower, turnips, etc. Sea kale might do well, and such a
delicacy would be well worth striving after. A valiant effort has been
made to grow mushrooms from imported spawn, but the process
entailed a good deal of rather elaborate arrangement, and the result
was nil. But I see no reason why they should not be cultivated in
grass; I have eaten quite delicious tiny mushrooms which I gathered
myself on the polo-ground at Lokoja. It seems to me that if a crisp
fresh salad and cucumber can be produced daily, with a dish of
tomatoes and another of French beans, one may well be grateful for
small mercies, and concentrate attention on growing these,
experimenting meanwhile with everything and anything that comes
to hand.
I am specially anxious to see the Avocada pear grown freely in
Northern Nigeria; it flourishes on the coast, and a more delicious
fruit could hardly be desired. I raised four strong little trees in
Lokoja, which, alas, went the way of all things in my absence, and I
believe there are a few at Zungeru. It is a very easy matter to bring
a quantity of the large seeds from Sierra Leone, or from off the ship,
where they usually appear at table.
In conclusion, I am appending a list of flower and vegetable seeds
which I hope will find their way into every one’s baggage, for they
will, according to my small experience, reward the amateur gardener
best; also a few of the flowering shrubs and creepers which ought to
have a place in the garden, and which would, I feel sure, flourish in
Nigeria.

Flower Seeds

Convolvulus, of all kinds.

Zinnias.
Sunflowers.
Portulacca.
Marigolds.
Balsams.
Phlox.
Vinca.
Petunias.
Cannas.
Dahlias.
 Sweet-scented Tobacco.
Cinerarias.
Aquilegia.
Heliotrope.
Asters.
Coleus.
Pelargoniums.
Carnations.
Nasturtiums.
Sweet Sultans.
Gaillardias.
Salpiglossis.
Geraniums.

It will be observed that many familiar garden flowers are omitted

from this list; this is not an oversight, simply—they will not thrive. I
am, moreover, drawing on my own limited experience only, and that
not merely of successes, but also of failures and disappointments.

Bulbs, etc.

Tuberoses.
Achimenes.
Eucharis, and various hot-house lilies.
Freesia.
Agapanthus.
Monbretia.
Ixia.
Amaryllis.

Flowering Shrubs, Climbers, etc.

Poinsettias.
Hibiscus.
Stephanotis.
Tacsonia, and other Passion flowers.
Lapageria.
Roses
Princess Alice of Monaco.
Comtesse Riza du Parc.
Ma Surprise.
Comtesse d’Auerstadt.

Vegetables

French Beans.
Scarlet Runners.
Broad Beans.
Cucumbers.
Melons.
Sea Kale.
Spinach.
Egg Plant.
Tomatoes.
Cress.
Lettuces.
Radishes.
Marrows.
Carrots.
Parsley.
Spring Onions.
 CHAPTER V
The Stable
My feminine readers may feel inclined to ‘skip’ this chapter with
the remark: ‘Well, the stables are not in my department’; but I think
the wife of an official in Nigeria will usually find that her husband
has more work of his own to do than he can well squeeze into each
day, and, however slight her previous knowledge on the subject may
be, the certainty that, unless she bestirs herself and gives personal
attention and supervision, the ponies will be neglected, ill-fed and
uncleanly, will, I feel sure, be sufficient stimulus to any true
Englishwoman. For she naturally loves horses, and cannot but be
fond of her wiry little thirteen-hand ponies in Nigeria; because they
are, as a rule, sweet-tempered, willing, honest little souls, whose
mistress will, in almost every case, have reason to remember how
gallantly they carried her on such and such a march, and how
cleverly they climbed and negotiated the nasty places, and forded
uncertain-looking rivers. This alone will give them a strong claim on
her loving care, and she will admit, after a time at all events, that it
is worth while to learn all she can on the subject, and to spend half
an hour every morning at the stables, inspecting each pony and his
house, and another half-hour after the evening ride to see them
dried, rubbed down and fed. For ourselves, I hardly think we could
sleep in peace unless we had paid our usual visit to the stables to
satisfy ourselves that all was well there, the ponies comfortable and
well supplied with grass.
The morning visit may well be spent in what would appear to the
new-comer to be childish reiteration of most elementary instruction
to the man who makes a profession of looking after your horse. For
instance, it is quite necessary to demand to be shown the inside of
your ponies’ feet every day: your horse-boy—until trained—takes no
personal interest in them, and assuredly will not clean them out on
his own initiative, so, without your daily examination, a tiresome