Engaging Families in Children's Mathematical Learning

Engaging Families in Children's Mathematical Learning:

Classroom Visits with Latina Mothers[1]

by Marta Civil and Beatriz Quintos

Verónica, a Mexican immigrant, tells us about her frustration at not being able to help her son, a sixth grader, not because she does not know the content, but because of a language barrier and a difference in approaches:

When I sit with him to see what it is he is doing, it appears that translating the problem so that I can help is too much trouble [for him]. It takes a lot of work when it is difficult to translate something for me, to tell me, so he prefers to go early or ask someone else and that is something I don't like. He doesn't feel very sure that I understand him because the problem is written in English. I don't know how to read it and he doesn't know how to translate well for me because he speaks Spanish and reads Spanish, but we say different things for the same words and questions, I think he thinks I studied differently.

And in fact, they may very well have studied differently. Verónica recalls how she taught her son to divide the way she was taught in Mexico:

I tried to do the same thing with my child with divisions, that he didn't write everything but he says, "no, no mom my teacher is going to think that I did it on the computer;" "You don't need to write the subtraction, son" I said, "you only put what is left," . . . but he says, "No, no, the teacher is going to think I did it on the computer; I have to do it this way." "Ok, yes, you think . . . but I want to teach you how we [she emphasizes the we] learned it", and yes, I taught him but he continues to do it his method and that way he feels safe he's turning in the homework as they have told him.

Verónica is one of many mothers[2] in our work who has shared with us her struggles to understand the different approaches to her children's mathematics instruction. Obviously, a difference in approach is not unique to people who have gone to school in a different country; the teaching of mathematics has changed dramatically in some schools in recent years. Some of these new approaches involve hands-on activities, group work, communication of mathematical ideas, both through discussions and in writing. Reform-based mathematics curricula involve topics that may not have received much if any attention in the past. We argue, however, that these differences in approach take on a different light when those affected are low-income, immigrant families, whose knowledge has historically not been recognized or valued by institutions such as schools (Abreu, Cline, & Shamsi, 2002).

What could be dismissed as a generational conflict between children and parents, may be more complex when those involved have to negotiate cultural issues associated with immigration. As Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco (2001) write in their study on immigrant children in the U.S., "(I)mmigrants are by definition in the margins of two cultures. Paradoxically, they can never truly belong either 'here' nor 'there.'" (p. 92). These authors write about the identity issues that immigrant children confront when caught between their parents' culture and the culture in their new country.

Our work for the last six years with parents and mathematics has gathered evidence of how this "feeling caught between cultures" also expands to mathematics education. Our research has shown that immigrant parents often go back and forth between their own experiences learning mathematics in their home country and what their children are experiencing in their new country (Civil, Quintos, & Bernier, 2003). Below, two mothers discuss this issue and how each is approaching it somewhat differently:

Lucinda: Well, what I say is, for example my daughter tells me "come to learn how they teach here, come see that I am right," when we are upset at each other here around the table, and sometimes she is the one who makes me upset, because I want to explain things to her as I know them, and I tell her "mija, the way I explain it to you, I know it's much better for you," but she sticks to her . . .

Gabriela: But for one thing, here we are in the U.S. and here is where they are going to grow up, they are going to study here, and I wanted to do the same thing as you, but then I say, but why, if they are teaching him things from here, and he is going to stay here, and so, one wants to teach them more so that they know more, but what they are teaching them is because they are going to stay here, and they are going to follow what they teach them here.

How can we work with parents towards bridging these differences and create an environment that responds to "the challenge . . . to find a way to re-conceptualize the school as a community where differences are valued rather than feared and in which everyone is invited and encouraged to participate" (Dodd & Konzal, 1999, p. 33)? Our proposed model for parental participation in mathematics education is an attempt to develop that bridge. Our model is composed of four components:

1) parents as parents (most parents initially join the project because they want to help their children with their mathematics learning);

2) parents as learners (many parents enjoy the courses and workshops for themselves as adult learners);

3) parents as teachers (some parents become facilitators or mathematics workshops for the community at large);

4) parents as leaders (parents become advocates for the education (particularly in mathematics) not only of their children but of other children in the community).

We have described this model in more detail elsewhere (Civil & Quintos, 2002; Civil, Bratton & Quintos, in press). Here we focus on one activity that cuts across the four components: classroom visits with parents.

Classroom Visits as a Context for Dialogue About Mathematics Education

As we developed ties with the mothers in the different components of the project, they started sharing with us stories from their children's classrooms-- most often, through their children's eyes. As we tried to understand further what the issues were, we realized how hard it was to speak in the abstract. Thus we decided to invite a few of the mothers (usually no more than 3 or 4 per group) to conduct classroom visits with us. We told the mothers that the purpose of these visits was so that we could all have a common experience (namely observing a mathematics class) as a point of reference for further talk about teaching and learning mathematics.

Pre-visit. For each classroom visit, we met the mothers at the school site approximately half an hour prior to the visit. We discussed the ethics of conducting a classroom visit, our role inside the classroom and the theme of the lesson (if available in advance). We gave them forms to guide their observation. Prompts included in these forms were: What do you see the students doing? Describe what the students are using in class to do mathematics; how is the instruction in this classroom driven (e.g., textbook, activity based, group work, lecture, etc)?

Visit. Inside the classroom, our role varied according to the classroom dynamics and social norms. In some classrooms, we observed from the back of the room. In other classrooms, we walked around the room, talked to the students and exchanged ideas with them as they worked in groups or individually. The researchers took field notes during the classroom visit.

Post-visit. Immediately after the classroom observation, the researchers and the mothers met to share impressions (on one occasion the teacher joined us for part of this debriefing). To start the conversation, we usually asked questions such as "what were your impressions about the class?" "What was important for you in the class?" "Was the class what you expected or not, and why?" "What did you think of the math content?" All the debriefings were video and audio taped. These were then transcribed and formed the core of our data for research.

Some Salient Themes in the Dialogue

The mothers' classroom visits opened the door to a rich dialogue about critical issues related to their children's mathematics education. During the debriefing a variety of themes emerged, including language issues and differences in approaches such as the earlier case of Verónica. Next we illustrate some of these themes.

Values / Beliefs. Our debriefings always brought up values and beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics. For example, we conducted a visit with one mother to two different first grade classrooms (see Civil & Quintos, 2002, for a more detailed description). One of the teachers was quite traditional in her approach to teaching mathematics. As the mother described it, "and the classroom is very organized, the children raise their hands, because she knows how to command respect . . . The children are really well behaved and they are on task, because she knows how to command respect." The other teacher was working towards implementing the recommendations of organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2000). She had the children discussing mathematical problems among themselves. As the mother described it "(S)he never gave them a detailed explanation. I think that we need to explain to them the "why" behind things. And no, all she did was ask questions. She never told them if something was right or wrong . . . She didn't have control of 100% of the children, because there were moments in which the children were doing whatever they wanted at their desks, talking."

Overall, we agreed with the description that the mother gave of each classrooms. To a great extent, we all "saw" the same thing during both visits. Where we diverged was in our "judgment" of these two learning experiences. For us, the questioning and absence of closure were seen as part of a teaching approach based on helping children take ownership of their own learning. For the mother, they were seen as disorganized and not a sign of good teaching. For us, the discipline techniques observed in the more traditional classroom were an integral part of a lesson that focused on a procedural approach to mathematics instruction. For the mother, this more traditional approach showed control, organization, respect, and clear delineation of the teacher's and students' roles.

Debriefing experiences such as these, where we each get to voice our views about what we saw in the classroom, allow us to work towards bridging the differences in perceptions that we have documented when talking to parents.

Interaction and Learning Opportunities. Some classroom visits served as an arena for the mothers to explore further their own understanding of mathematics. They became "students" in the class and engaged in the activities. Sometimes we would pick up the actual content during the debriefing sessions and revisit questions that the mothers had.

In one visit to a high school class, two of the mothers were having trouble understanding one of the problems. One of the students went over to help them out. This was the highlight of the experience for these mothers. During the debriefing, they could not stop talking about how powerful it had been for them to have a student "teaching" them.

Lucinda: And what I noticed is that one of them wanted to help us, he was participating with us, because he helped us, the young man that helped us, he tried to explain it to us because we didn't understand.

Gabriela: But the most interesting was this thing about the young man; he came to help us, instead of us helping him.

Jillian: When parents ask for help and kids can give it to you, I can't tell you how that must make [the child] feel, that's a big deal. "This is important math because these grown ups are going to ask me." I think that is really neat, they appreciate that, they look at us differently.

Taken in isolation this incident may not mean much. But the overall conversation pointed to another theme that seems to be key for many of the mothers with whom we have worked: their interaction with children (their children in particular) about mathematics. Parents, when visiting their children's classroom, were able to learn about their children as learners and their interactions at school.

Curricular Issues. Visiting a class gives all of us first hand experience with what is being taught. It is not surprising then, that often the mothers would comment on content issues. For example, in a visit to a second grade class, the mothers were somewhat surprised that the topic was measurement. They wondered whether the activity they saw – measuring objects with different tools / manipulatives—was too hard for the students.

Esperanza: To me, these children seemed very young to be doing this, but . . . the activity seemed very advanced for children in second grade. Do they teach that at that age?

Ana: I didn't think the topic was going to be on measurement. I thought it was going to be on multiplication, subtraction. They look very young to be learning this. But they answered very well.

Sometimes these discussions on the content and the level actually brought up other issues such as, "(A)re children learning the grade-level curriculum they are supposed to?" One of the mothers visited her daughter's 2nd/3rd grade class. Her daughter is a 3rd grader. In the debriefing one of the questions was about whether she thought the level was appropriate for the children. She said that she had talked to the teacher wondering why the level was low, but that the teacher had told her that all they would learn this year would be addition and subtraction,

She [her daughter] is not going to see anything else, and they have to understand it well to move onto fourth grade. There won't be multiplications; there won't be divisions; ( . . . ) because I had asked her, "teacher, why is the level in mathematics so low" and that's what she told me.

What is interesting to note here, is that despite her initial concerns about the level being low (and we have to say that in our view, her daughter was not exposed to grade level curriculum), the mother seemed satisfied with the teacher's explanation. "I think that for my daughter, it's fine; and the children in second grade, well they'll move ahead," she said. But towards the end of the debriefing, this mother started wondering about this level question and in fact told us that she was going to visit the class more often and see if the second graders were really following and how her daughter compared with the second graders. We think that engaging with her about content and level may have brought back some questions that she obviously had about what they were learning in mathematics in this class. Thus, a possible effect of these classrooms visits is to promote parents' advocacy for their children's education.

Several other aspects that are critical in the children's learning experiences were part of the conversation such as, teacher-student relationships, gender biases, and issues that are foreign to most families such as academic terms like "reform math versus back to basics." These aspects pertain to schools' issues that impact children's learning trajectories and therefore parents have the right to learn about them and have their voices taken into account.

Classroom observations can help counter an unequal power relationship between home and school. In our conversations, parents showed they are committed learners about their children, the school's viewpoint, and school mathematics. At the same time, in order for these experiences to enable schools and parents to become connected advocates of children's learning, it requires that the school also become a learner of parents' views and beliefs, their experiences and their knowledge.

Notes

1. The findings and preparation of this paper were supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation for the Center for the Mathematics Education of Latinos (No. ESI-0424983) and for Project MAPPS (Math and Parent Partnerships in the Southwest (No. ESI-9901275). The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.

2. Most of the participants in our local activities were mothers. We did have a few fathers in the research interviews, but for this paper our focus will be on the mothers who took part in the classroom visits and other project activities.

Selected References

Abreu, G. d., Cline, T., & Shamsi, T. (2002). "Exploring ways parents participate in their children's school mathematical learning: Cases studies in multiethnic primary school." In G. de Abreu, A. J. Bishop & N. C. Presmeg (Eds.), Transitions between contexts of mathematical practices (pp. 123-147). Boston, MA: Kluwer.

Civil, M., Bratton, J., & Quintos, B. (in press). "Parents and mathematics education in a Latino community: Redefining parental participation." Multicultural Education Journal.

Civil, M. & Quintos, B. (2002, April). "Uncovering Mothers' Perceptions about the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of AERA, New Orleans, LA.

Civil, M., Quintos, B., & Bernier, E., (2003, April). "Parents as Observers in the Mathematics Classroom: Establishing a Dialogue Between School and Community." Paper presented at the NCTM research pre session, San Antonio, TX.

Dodd, A. W.& Konzal, J. L. (1999). Making our high schools better: How parents and teachers can work together. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). "Principles and standards for school mathematics." Reston, VA: NCTM. Suárez-Orozco, C. & Suárez-Orozco, M. (2001). Children of immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

About the authors

Marta Civil is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Arizona. Her research interests are in cultural and social aspects in the teaching and learning of mathematics, equity, parental engagement in mathematics, and mathematics teacher education. Much of her work is located in working class Latino communities. Contact Professor Civil at civil@math.arizona.edu.

Posted January 2006 by New Horizons for Learning
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