Family Math in Practice: Early Math Knowledge Making with Black and Latina Mothers

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 3:45 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Learning Where we Live: Reimagining STEM Through Community Practices

Abstract

One factor influencing parents’ engagement in math activities with their children is their own beliefs and attitudes regarding their children’s math development. Previous research suggests that parent-child interactions, such as the number of discussions, can bridge the gap between parents’ beliefs and children’s developmental outcomes (Vasilyeva et al., 2018). In this study, we draw on Lave and Wenger’s (1991) Situated Learning Theory to frame the learning of Black and Latina mothers as rooted in everyday contexts. As Wenger (1998) emphasizes, learning is a social process where knowledge and meaning emerge through engagement. We examine how mothers participate in early math activities that bridge formal and informal spaces, highlighting their culturally rooted practices as central to their children’s development. We employed qualitative participatory methods to explore Black and Latina mothers and caregivers engaging with math activities. We conducted two family math design-based sessions to explore the following research questions: (1) How do Black and Latina mothers engage as math educators through everyday routines and cultural practices? And (2) How do participatory design sessions reveal families’ epistemic knowledge to inform culturally responsive math resources? We partnered with the Compton Unified School District to recruit 25 participants, primarily mothers (84%), who identified as Latina (76%) and Black (24%). Most spoke Spanish (76%), and nearly half had not completed high school (48%); see Table 1. We used Author 1’s design-based and co-design prompts to facilitate two-day family math sessions where mothers explored early math activities and shared qualitative feedback. Each day featured hands-on math play, a guided reflection, and observations—Day 1 focused on counting and spatial reasoning (Canicas and Shape Piñata), while Day 2 addressed cardinality and fractions (Number Lotería and Piece of Cake); see Figure 1. We employed interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith et al., 2009) to explore how mothers made sense of their math experiences, using Creswell and Creswell’s (2018) qualitative research process. Through bilingual transcription, inductive and iterative coding, and thematic categorization, we identified 35 codes across 11 categories, illuminating how mothers co-constructed knowledge during math activities. In this paper, we focus on two key themes: (1) Parent Reflections and Epistemic Knowledge; and (2) Relational and Contextualized Math in Practice. Data revealed how mothers demonstrated rich mathematical thinking as they engaged in hands-on activities. Mothers shared insights on how math can be introduced in meaningful and playful ways. Importantly, mothers connected how these math concepts are embedded in their everyday lives—counting during meals, managing household tasks, shopping, and engaging in cultural and religious routines. Our study highlights the importance of supporting mothers in recognizing how their home environments and lived experiences are powerful sources of mathematical learning. Recognizing how mothers understand and engage with math activities can guide educators and classroom practices to better connect with families’ lived realities and design more responsive, strengths-based learning environments. By recognizing their mathematical thinking as situated and participatory, we reposition families as central agents in children’s early development, shaping learning through culturally rooted practices that affirm both competence and a sense of belonging.

Authors

• Susana Beltran-Grimm, Portland State University

• Karlena Diane Ochoa, California State University - Fullerton

• Yemimah King, Georgia State University

• Sasha Reinwald Albrecht, Portland State University