Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools abruptly transitioned to emergency remote instruction. Consequently, expectations for parental involvement in school mathematics rose to unprecedented levels. We sought to understand the experiences of parents to reimagine possibilities for engagement in mathematics during and beyond the pandemic. Leveraging data from tweets using #mathathome and survey responses from parents, we identified who supported continued mathematics learning at home and explored the nature of the mathematics taught there. We found that Twitter and survey data sources described two largely distinct groups of those supporting parents to continue mathematics education at home, but similar findings emerged from analyses of each data source, suggesting that themes were common among different groups. Namely, we saw a commitment to continued mathematics learning and engagement with a range of mathematics topics. These topics mostly focused on elementary-level content, especially counting, through everyday activities/objects and mathematical sense-making. Most parents used resources provided by the school alongside resources they identified and provided on their own. School responses to emergency remote instruction were mostly asynchronous, and parents expressed a need for more opportunities to interact directly with their children’s teachers. We discuss what the mathematics education community might learn from these experiences to support parental engagement during and beyond periods of remote emergency instruction.
Highlights
In 2019, a novel coronavirus outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, China, and by early 2020, the outbreak was a global pandemic, with confirmed cases in countries throughout the world
To explore what spaces and forms of capital (RQ1), especially allies (RQ2), parents had available and used, we relied on two primary data sources: (1) data generated from posts on social media, namely Twitter, that promoted mathematics at home during COVID-19 emergency remote instruction and (2) data generated from a survey of parents about their experiences with emergency remote instruction
We certainly do not claim that our findings generalize to all parents, but we feel confident that the findings describe experiences that reflect common successes and challenges in parental engagement during emergency remote instruction
Summary
In 2019, a novel coronavirus outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, China, and by early 2020, the outbreak was a global pandemic, with confirmed cases in countries throughout the world. All the adults in children’s lives shape children’s mathematics identities—how children see themselves as learners and doers of mathematics—by endorsing or challenging cultural stereotypes about who is “good” at mathematics [9] Those from privileged backgrounds have long used parental involvement as a form of social capital to ensure their children’s achievement [8]. Parents of students historically marginalized on the basis of race, gender, and class, face unique challenges to involvement in mathematics education They must navigate stereotypes that position them as disinterested in or incapable of supporting mathematics learning because of low educational attainment. These stereotypes, paired with under-recognized forms of involvement, overlook how parents from marginalized groups deliberately advocate for and support their children’s mathematics education [10,11]
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