Developmentally and Culturally Responsive Practice in 4K Mathematics: Drawing on Children’s Funds of Knowledge

• In Event: Developing Ambitious Mathematics Teaching With an Equity Stance: Rethinking Routine Practice

Abstract

In this presentation we describe a professional development program (PD) for teachers in a public preK program designed to bridge the gap between home and school in order to provide culturally and developmentally responsive mathematics instruction. In order to enhance the capacity of teachers of a newly initiated public preK program we are providing a two-year, four-course PD to support teachers in understanding how children’s counting and number skills are and can be supported in home and school.

It is well documented that children come to school with a great deal of informal mathematical knowledge (Carpenter, et al., 1999; Kazemi & Franke, 2004; Schifter, 1998). Historically this knowledge has been defined in terms of the problem-solving strategies students brought to school. This approach misses the cultural histories and contexts in which these strategies developed. Our working hypotheses are that (a) instruction that connects home and school experiences and builds on children’s emerging mathematical knowledge will increase school success; and (b) high-quality, developmentally and culturally appropriate instruction is particularly important in children’s early years when they are preparing for and first entering school.

This presentation reports on the first year of the PD in which fifteen preschool and primary teachers participated. In weekly classes, they read, reflected, and discussed issues related to early childhood, mathematics, and home-school connections. Each teacher worked with a focal child from a different ethnic, linguistic, and/or socio-economic background. In monthly meetings with the children and multiple home visits, teachers interacted with the child, focusing on counting and number skills and the family resources that contributed to these skills.

Our analysis relies on transcriptions of audiotaped seminar discussions, multiple interviews with the teachers, written reflections and, artifacts completed by the teachers.

We found that the PD supported teachers’ to recognize the mathematical strategies children engaged with in home and during play and to reflect on how children’s experiences influenced the choices they made in counting and solving problems. In particular, the home visits contributed to teachers increasing awareness of the mathematical resources children brought from home and how the teachers saw their ability to “access” the mathematical knowledge of children and families. Teachers noted that families provided multiple opportunities to develop counting and number skills and that the contexts in which children operated in the home often differed from those contexts offered in school. Several teachers stated that they learned much more about their focal children's math knowledge than they realized they would, based on just a few visits. They are also planning to institute home visits for the coming year in order to gain this knowledge of their students.

While the value of home visits is strongly represented in the literature, the way that teachers connected the visits explicitly to their understanding of children’s mathematical knowledge, and then used this as a building block, is paramount.

Author

• Anita A. Wager, University of Wisconsin