When Home Came to School: Mexican Mothers and their Children Finding (and Solving) Mathematical Problems in their Life Experiences

• In Event: After the School Bell Rings: Opening Up New Spaces for Teaching/Learning Mathematics With Latinas/os

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to reflect on how a problem solver figures in the process of solving a problem, and use that reflection to advance our understanding of enacted curriculum. Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska wrote: “It seems to me that intelligence is not about solving problems but about finding them.” Finding a problem, in the context to be presented, refers to the process of finding oneself in relation to that problem, including one’s resources, motivation, and ability to solve the problem. The perspective used draws from the relationship between written curriculum and enacted curriculum in mathematics (Herbel-Eisenmann, 2007; Remillard, 2005). Literature on this relationship tends to focus on the teacher as the main mediator mediator (Remillard & Barnes, 2004; Doyle, 1993). This study, however, looks at how students and mothers can also contribute to understanding the written and enacted curriculum relationship.
The mode of inquiry in this paper privileges five Mexican mothers and their children, all participants in an after school program, as collectors of their own data. By collecting their own data and finding differential engagement in school-based versus home-based problems, this approach draws from grounded theory, particularly on the idea of “gain[ing] a fresh perspective on a familiar situation” (Stern, 1995, p. 9). Consistent with this method, mothers and children went home from school to find problems that are part of their everyday living in Chicago. In this process, they also found themselves as capable problem solvers. Mothers took field notes and collected problems that they and their children identified as relevant in their lives and that their children solved successfully. Data sources consist of a video of the group of mothers discussing as a focus group the process of finding problems at home and solving them with their children. Another source of data are the problems created, pictorially animated, and solved by students.
Results, as reported by mothers as researchers interested in children’s mathematics, suggest students’ increased engagement, sustained struggle with important mathematical concepts, and a sense of achievement that students experienced solving these problems. There is a common assumption in many schools—certainly in most US schools—that students should apply school-based knowledge in their everyday lives. However, it is rare to hear the opposite argument, that schools welcome and value everyday knowledge as foundational for school-based knowledge. Results from this mother-facilitated investigation suggest the need to explore student engagement, performance, and achievement in mathematics by considering what home can bring to school.

Author

• Higinio Dominguez, Michigan State University