Mothers and Children Doing Mathematics Together: Implications for Teacher Learning

Abstract

Background/Context:

There is much to understand about how parents and children interact around mathematics, particularly with families whose home language is different from the children’s main language of schooling. Families of immigrant origin are likely to bring experiences and knowledge that may be different from what their children’s schools expect or value. Educators can benefit greatly from a better understanding of these experiences and the nature of the parent–child mathematical interactions.

Purpose/Focus of Study:

Learning about and from the nature of parent–child mathematical interactions can support the in-school learning of mathematics of bilingual children. We use positioning theory to explore the question, “What are the positions in parent–child interactions during mathematics tasks?”

Setting:

The context for our study is workshops designed to engage families in explorations of mathematical tasks from the school curriculum, with a focus on conceptual understanding and problem-solving. The workshops were bilingual; most parents were of Mexican origin and had Spanish as their primary language, while their children were being taught in English at school. The workshops built on two related theoretical concepts: funds of knowledge and parents as intellectual resources.

Research Design:

This study focuses on interactions between parents and children around mathematics. We did a purposeful selection of video clips from the workshop recordings. In this article, we focus on two cases that present two different contexts, a game situation and a more school-like mathematics activity. We used positioning theory to interpret how the mothers and children related with each other and therefore interactively positioned themselves and each other.

Findings:

In both cases, mothers and daughters held the position of knowledge holders, and their positions changed in moment-to-moment interactions. Also, while at times, the mothers exerted a position of authority as mothers, they did not use this position to impose their views; rather, they engaged with their daughters in the learning process. The mothers and their daughters drew on their everyday ways of being (e.g., playfulness, translanguaging) in their mathematical interactions. The interactions showed instances of co-learning, that is, adapting and learning from each other.

Conclusions/Recommendations:

The mothers and daughters in this study drew on their everyday ways of being, including their cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge, during the mathematical interactions. Teachers can improve their practice by learning about these interactions. It is important to explore how educators can develop co-learning environments in the classroom that support collaborative sense-making.