Communication as Action: Understanding Parents' Responses to Curriculum Reform

• In Event: Park Central Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Including the Voices of Families and Communities

Abstract

In Canada, parents’ growing concerns about the “new math” are drawing public attention. Rather than dismissing such concerns, understanding parents’ perspectives and garnering their support are essential to ongoing curriculum reform and children’s success. In this paper, we present results of a phenomenographic study examining parents’ conceptualization of the current mathematics curriculum. We focus specifically on parents’ responses to school-to-home communication regarding mathematics curriculum reform: (a) seeking out further information, (b) accepting communication as given, and (c) resisting information disseminated. We examine parents’ perceived communication through Habermas’s communicative action theory, that is to consider home-school communication as a process beyond institutional plans but a dynamic meaning-making process in lifeworld based on mutual acceptance.

Authors

• Janelle McFeetors, University of Alberta

• Yin Yin, University of Alberta

• Lynn M. McGarvey, University of Alberta

• Jennifer Holm, University of Alberta