A comparative cultural study of mathematics education at Northern Cyprus and Turkmenistan secondary schools

This study was aimed at investigating the opinions of secondary school supervisors about mathematics education as a cross cultural study at the secondary schools of Northern Cyprus and Turkmenistan. A semi-structured interview was used to elicit responses from three supervisors from inside of the Northern Cyprus and eight educational supervisors from province of Turkmenistan (totalling eleven participants from two countries) about mathematics education in both countries to make a cross cultural comparison. Findings of the study indicated major challenges such as short duration of the control period, ignorance about the facilities and conditions, coincidental selection of the topics and classes, teacher’s unawareness of the evaluation criteria, and incompetence of supervisors in the field of mathematical inspection. It was further found that the difference between both the countries on the matter of control of the mathematics education is not very big. The study has positive significance for Ministry and Department of Education, Education Supervisors, administrators, researchers and teachers on effectively implementing mathematics education. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media B.V.