ERIC Number: EJ1351733
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Sep
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0025-5769
EISSN: EISSN-2330-0582
Available Date: N/A
Centering Families' Mathematical Practices in a Multilingual Space
Dominguez, Amanda M.; Feldman, Marina; Battey, Dan; Palpacuer Lee, Christelle; Hunsdon, Jessica
Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, v115 n9 p633-641 Sep 2022
During a typical family mathematics night (FMN), families are invited to a school, and parents and guardians work on mathematics activities with their children while teachers facilitate activities and share information on how to better support children in their mathematical development. How might this engagement change when information is not flowing unidirectionally, from teachers to families? What would it look like if families' mathematical practices and multilingualism were centered and valued? How would that work in a virtual setting? The Family Mathematics project, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, addresses these questions. As the authors discovered, virtual events present their own logistical and pedagogical challenges but can allow for a broader conception of community and accessibility. The project showcases the challenges and possibilities of learning about and drawing from families' mathematical practices and multilingualism. The authors collaborated with parents, recruited through their partner community organization, to ensure that their life experiences were at the core of this project. Through this collaboration, the authors learned from parents how they used mathematics at home and at work, as well as the challenges they encountered with school-based mathematics. The authors then designed activities that bridged the realms of school and family. This article describes design principles to enact an asset-based perspective in FMNs and illustrates the benefits of collaborating with community-based organizations. Whereas in Tobon and Hughes (2020), parents were positioned as mathematicians within existing activities, in this project, parents' input guided the design and structure of activities in an iterative process. Throughout this project, families were seen as partners, and their language and mathematical practices, as assets.
Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, COVID-19, Pandemics, Multilingualism, Teaching Methods, Family School Relationship, Mathematics Activities, Computer Simulation, Community Organizations, Parent Attitudes, Educational Benefits, Program Descriptions, Feedback (Response), Mathematics Skills, Educational Change
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-9840; Fax: 703-476-2570; e-mail: publicationsdept@nctm.org; Web site: https://pubs.nctm.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New Jersey
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A