Sociocultural influences on parents’ views about mathematics education for young children

Abstract

This thesis investigates parents’ views on mathematics education for young children at home and in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions in Sweden and Norway. The curricula documents for ECEC highlight the importance of collaboration between teachers and parents for children’s learning and development. However, the views of parents on the education of young children are seldom explored in research. The assumption that parents and other family members can contribute to children’s mathematics education is a fundamental assumption in the current project.

The narratives of parents of their experiences with young children in mathematics education were analysed to identify answers to the following overarching research questions. how can parents’ views on mathematics activities for young children be identified? what do parents’ value in mathematics education for young children? and what might influence parents’ views on mathematics education? Parents’ views were investigated by collecting data from online surveys of Polish parents living in Sweden and through photo-elicitation focus group interviews with Norwegian parents.

The narratives that were produced from these two data collections provided different insights into parents’ views on mathematics education for young children which have to do with the relationship between parents’ individual views and wider societal views. The findings indicate that counting was viewed as important for young children, and everyday life experiences were considered an appropriate means of introducing them to mathematical ideas. Many of the parents emphasised their role in children’s mathematics learning and its impact on how the children engaged with mathematics at home. The findings also indicate that parents’ views on mathematics education are influenced by wider societal expectations connected to ECEC pedagogical practices in mathematics education.

The implications of this research include an understanding of the kinds of opportunities there are for parents to contribute to the introduction of mathematics education to ECEC. Nevertheless, the research results also show that collaboration between parents and teachers can be challenging because of the different nature of their roles. Consequently, one outcome of this research is the identification of a need for further research into the complexity of collaboration as this relates to the negotiation of different understandings of pedagogy, mathematics and roles and responsibilities in children’s learning of mathematics.