Multilingual Children Positioning for Learning: Parents and Children Working Together on Mathematics

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Family and Community Orientations to Language (Table 2)

Abstract

Research has documented inequitable educational opportunities for multilingual students and highlighted the critical role of parents to inform culturally relevant pedagogies. We study an innovative mathematical partnership that brings parents and teachers together across three sites that reflect diverse political, cultural, and linguistic contexts. Drawing upon positioning theory and research on funds of knowledge, we analyzed the interactive and reflective positioning in 15 parent-child interactions during mathematics problem-solving tasks in parent workshops. We engaged in recursive analysis of video recordings and transcripts. By shedding light on the different ways parents draw on their funds of knowledge and engage with their children, our study can inform a more equitable mathematics education by positioning multilingual learners as central and competent members.

Authors

• Melinda E. Martin-Beltran, University of Maryland

• Rachel J. Pinnow, University of Missouri

• Heather Lindfors-Navarro, Northern Arizona University

• Fany Salazar, University of Arizona

• Tarik Buli, University of Maryland

• Michael W. Krell, University of Maryland

• Erin Turner, University of Arizona

• Claudia L. Galindo, University of Maryland

• Marta Civil, University of Arizona

• Kathryn B. Chval, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Beatriz E. Quintos, University of Maryland