How the Environment of Self-Directed Education Fosters Numeracy

• In Event: Place and Praxis in the Radical Imaginary of Self-Directed Education

Abstract

Purpose
This study explores how and to what extent children develop numeracy when they freely choose what, when, where and how to learn.
Theoretical Perspectives
Normative curricular conventions suggest that for students to attain adequate numeracy, they must go through a decade of mathematics education before postsecondary pursuits. However, many people do not become numerate despite years of mathematics instruction, and researchers and teachers are uncertain about how to develop students' mathematical literacy (Haara et al., 2017). Interestingly, Numeracy as a Social Practice (NSP) research has shown that numeracy develops situationally outside of school in communities of practice (e.g., Nunes et al., 1993; Kalman & Soares, 2018). Similarly, in spaces of self-directed education (SDE), where typically little to no formal mathematical instruction is delivered, children “naturally play with words and numbers and thereby become…proficient enough with math to meet the demands of life in our culture” (Gray, 2011, p. 33), including entering and succeeding in college (Gray & Chanoff, 1986). Despite this unexpected result, little has been investigated regarding how students in SDE acquire numeracy without a prescribed mathematics curriculum.
Methods and Data Sources
As part of a larger qualitative study designed to explore how numeracy emerges in the absence of conventional direct instruction, we employed narrative inquiry methods (Connelly & Clandinin, 2000) to elicit stories from 16 adults who had not attended math courses during their K-6 school years. Participants were drawn from three U.S. Sudbury schools and several unschooling communities in France and the U.S. Interview transcripts were analyzed to highlight the role of place in these graduates’ numeracy development.
Findings
We found that, in alignment with NSP, numeracy development is situational. It emerges not as an end in itself, but as a need determined by environmental demands and rooted in social practices. The places that fostered numeracy development included the home environment (cooking, playing, crafts, building, conversations), the surrounding community (shopping, nature, museums, libraries, transportation, violin shop), digital spaces (online gaming, youtube, Google, podcasts), and social gatherings (homeschool groups, photography clubs, field trips). These places supported exploration without imposing any expectations, triggering problem solving, curiosity about mathematical concepts, and social engagement with math. Specific numeracy skills such as basic arithmetic, ratios and percentages developed through games, financial exchanges, measurement, and conversation. None of the participants asserted that their lack of conventional math education held them back in any way.
Significance
Researchers have long found that students’ numeracy lags behind their performance of decontextualized mathematics skills (Yasukawa et al., 2018). Since mathematics is central to most school curricula but “specific attempts to work directly with mathematical literacy through mathematics alone have not been successful” (Haara et al., 2017, p. 293), an examination of mathematics learning in the absence of conventional curricula could inform educators, families and policy makers. As we join AERA in constructing educational possibilities, we assert that SDE research provides a unique opportunity to understand how an emergent (Heydon & Wang, 2006) and lived (Aoki, 1993) curriculum of experience in a numerate environment supports numeracy development.

Authors

• Maryam Vahid Dastgerdi, Learning Planet Institute

• Melissa Riley Bradford, DePaul University