Designing for Family Math: An Equitable Collaboration with Mothers and Teachers at the Elementary Level

• In Event: Creating Spaces for Parents of Multilingual Children to Showcase Their Expertise and Understanding

Abstract

Objectives. Equitable partnerships with nondominant families are based on relational trust or confianza, redistribution of power, and valuing caregivers as intellectual resources (Author, 2025; Ishimaru & Bang, 2022). We sought to materialize these principles by forming a bilingual team with caregivers, teachers, and researchers to co-design for family math in an elementary school serving 83% of Latinx students. Aiming to unpack the moment-to-moment processes for equitable collaborations to flourish, this study asks: How do the design principles of our work take shape in the interactions between caregivers, teachers, and researchers? What practices emerge to enable the redistribution of power?

Theoretical framework. Engaging caregivers as co-designers of mathematical activities can help restore their epistemic authority, which becomes a form of agency (Booker & Goldman, 2016). Building on equitable collaborations and family math key literature, we crafted five design principles for our work: Uplift Everyday Math Practices, Engage in Meaningful Mathematics, Engage in Collaborative Design, Use our Full Linguistic Repertoire, and Build Capacity (see Fig. 1).

Methods and Data Sources. Our family math team (six mothers, three teachers, a research assistant, a project coordinator, and first author) met monthly to share mathematical practices, solve math problems, and design a school-wide family math night, using English and Spanish. Data includes transcripts from meetings and related artifacts. Our analytical process began with deductive, qualitative coding of the transcripts, using design principles as initial categories. Iterative rounds captured nuances under each principle and identified interactional segments for further analysis. Inductive coding revealed the aspects that emerged in the interactions, enabling the redistribution of power.

Findings. Design principles took shape through the interactions. Sharing everyday math practices allowed team members to enter each other's family routines and cultural heritages. During problem-solving, teachers and caregivers showed vulnerability by expressing confusion and collaboratively seeking solutions. Using full linguistic repertoires led to a co-construction of discourse, dynamic interpreter positioning, and expressions of translanguaging cariño (Salmerón et al., 2021). In these ways, we brought our whole selves to our collaboration (Ishimaru & Bang, 2022).

Co-designing a family math night centered caregivers' expertise on family participation. Moreover, constraints raised in the co-design meetings due to not having a school PTA led them to start one, ensuring the continuity of the family math work. In these ways, caregivers positioned themselves as decision makers.

Two main practices emerged in the interactions: humor and generosidad. The interactional segments were filled with laughs evolving from nervousness to shared jokes. Caregivers cooked, gave handmade bracelets, and checked in with one another. These practices show how team members built confianza (Author, 2025).

Scholarly significance. Prior relevant research on family math partnerships has focused on disrupting asymmetrical power positions (Quintos et al., 2024). Our study extends this scholarship by emphasizing a design-based approach. The findings enable us to refine the design principles for family math, allowing us to continue our work and make them available for other communities to build equitable math partnerships.

Authors

• Patricia Fuentes Acevedo, University of California - Irvine

• Rossella Santagata, University of California - Irvine