Recognizing the Strengths of African American and Multiracial Families in the Home Math Environment

New study reveals more about the positive math parenting identities of African American and Multiracial parents.

Introduction

As educators and professionals working with young children, we know that early math competencies are crucial for future academic success. However, we often overlook the vital role that parents play in nurturing these skills in the Home Math Environment (HME) before children even enter formal schooling. Our recent study challenges the deficit-based perspectives often held about the HMEs of African American and Multiracial families, revealing the strengths and funds of knowledge these families possess in supporting their children's early math development.

Why Leveraging the HME is Critical

There are several reasons that leveraging the HME of families of color is more critical now than ever:

1. Around 60% of 4th graders are not able to demonstrate proficiency on grade-level mathematics assessments (deBrey et al., 2019); the percentage is higher when data are disaggregated along race and SES.
2. These disparities are thought to begin with gaps in early math knowledge at the onset of kindergarten, hindering children from mastering key math competencies by the end of the kindergarten year.
3. Around 60% of all U.S. children (ages 3-5 years old) are not enrolled in a pre-primary school environment (e.g., preschool, pre-K) – with children of color predominantly representing those children learning at home (NCES, 2022)

In most of the current literature, mathematically rich HMEs are associated with better math knowledge and school entry, leading to increased mastery of key math competencies by the end of kindergarten (Daucourt, 2022). Given this, it's important to develop a better understanding of the HMEs of children, especially children of color, if we want to provide the support needed to ensure kindergarten math readiness.

The RESET Study

The present study involved the use of a survey to examine the math-parenting perceptions of a diverse population of parents (n = 847) of 4- and 5-year-old children from across the United States. Parents were surveyed across the five key RESET domains, which include their perceptions around their Role in supporting the early math learning of their child, Expectations of their child's ability to learn math, confidence in their own math Skills and parenting self-Efficacy, as well as their perceptions of Time and energy available to engage in math-parenting (Betts & Son, 2022). Parents were also asked a variety of questions designed to illuminate their awareness of appropriate early childhood math skills and concepts, as well as their self-reports of shared math activity in the home.

The Power of Positive Math Parenting

Our findings showed that African American and Multiracial parents demonstrated a myriad of positive "math parenting" perspectives and practices, with many indicators demonstrating significantly more positive outcomes than those of parents from other groups, including:

• Recognizing the importance of their role in guiding their child's math learning
• Holding high expectations for their child's math competencies
• Incorporating math into daily routines and family practices, such as counting steps while walking or comparing sizes during meal preparation
• Engaging in frequent, enriching math activities with their children, like playing board games that involve counting or discussing shapes and patterns in everyday objects

Each of the four points above are found, in the existing literature, to be significantly correlated with readiness to learn math in kindergarten. The critical findings of the present study revealed tremendous strengths of AA and Multiracial families in the home math environment. This contradicts deficit-based perspectives on families of color, particularly African American families, which often view children of color as coming from less academically enriching home environments, leading to diminished kindergarten readiness (Iruka, 2013; Reardon, 2015).? These findings would also seem to indicate that AA and Multiracial children are coming to kindergarten with strengths in mathematics that are potentially unacknowledged or left unleveraged.

Conversely, by acknowledging and leveraging the strengths of African American and Multiracial families, we have the potential to create more effective partnerships between families and educators to foster early math skills. By doing so, we ensure that not only are children ready to learn in kindergarten, but that the strengths they bring with them into the classroom are properly leveraged for their success, and for the greater educational experience of all learners. In sum, these unrecognized funds of knowledge can enhance the overall kindergarten classroom.

Addressing Challenges and Supporting Families

Despite their strong commitment to math parenting, this study showed that African American and Multiracial parents also face challenges. These include time constraints, limited awareness of critical age-appropriate math skills, and difficulties keeping children engaged. Though, these specific challenges were not unique to families of color but were shared by parents from all groups.

As practitioners, we can support all families by:

• Providing resources and guidance on developmentally appropriate math activities
• Offering flexible engagement opportunities that respect families' time and schedules
• Recognizing and building upon the unique strengths and funds of knowledge each family brings, such as incorporating culturally relevant math activities or leveraging existing family routines

While all families share some support needs in common, families have distinct needs as well. In particular, recognizing the ways in which the informal math talk and activities that permeate the lives of AA and Multiracial families provide many great support opportunities. These parent-child shared math activities that are already taking place can be leveraged to include key math competencies aligned with success in school. For example, building parent awareness of more advanced number concepts (e.g., one-to-one correspondence & cardinality beyond 10, backwards count sequence, concepts of addition & subtraction, etc.) provide them with much needed direction to move beyond simple number skills such as count sequence or numeral recognition. Recognizing and seizing these opportunities to guide families is paramount.

The Need for More Research and Recognition

Our study highlights the need for more research on the HMEs of children of color, and their connection to kindergarten readiness, and math achievement during the kindergarten year. By better understanding the math experiences these children have before entering school, and how the results of such experiences reveal themselves during school learning, we can create more effective bridges between home and school and collaborative support systems. Moreover, we must recognize and celebrate the strengths and contributions of our AA and multiracial families, moving away from deficit-based thinking and toward a more asset-based approach.

A Call to Action

As we work to improve early math education and school readiness, let us remember the crucial role that families of color play in their children's development. By collaboratively partnering with AA and multiracial families, recognizing their strengths, and providing targeted support, we can better understand the strengths and prior knowledge that AA and multiracial children are bringing with them to the kindergarten classroom. We can make space to intentionally recognize and leverage these strengths, and through doing so, we can create a more equitable and effective educational landscape for all children.

It is time for educators, policymakers, and researchers to actively challenge deficit-based perspectives and embrace the funds of knowledge that African American and Multiracial families bring to their children's early math learning. By working together and building upon these strengths, we can ensure that all children enter kindergarten ready to succeed in math and beyond.

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References:

Betts, A., & Son, J-W. (2022). Why parents do what they do: Developing and validating a survey for the mathematical lives of parents and children. The Paris Conference on Education 2022 Official Conference Proceedings. Paper presented at the Paris Conference on Education. Paris, France: The International Academic Forum (IAFOR).

Blevins-Knabe, B. (2016). Early mathematical development: How the home environment matters. In Blevins-Knabe & Berghout Austin, A.M. (Eds.)?Early childhood mathematics skill development in the home environment, (pp. 7-28). Springer International Publishing.

Daucourt, M. C., Napoli, A. R., Quinn, J. M., Wood, S. G., & Hart, S. A. (2021). The Home Math Environment and Children’s Math Achievement: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 147(6), 565.

de Brey, C., Musu, L., McFarland, J., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., Diliberti, M., Zhang, A., Branstetter, C., and Wang, X. (2019). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic groups 2018 (NCES 2019-038). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/

Iruka, I. U. (2013). The Black family: Re-imagining family support and engagement.?From Being Black is Not a Risk Factor, 18-23.

(NCES) National Center for Educational Statistics (May 2022).?Enrollment Rates of Young?Children.

Reardon, S. F., & Portilla, X. A. (2015). Recent trends in socioeconomic and racial school readiness gaps at kindergarten entry.?Center for Education Policy Analysis Working Papers, (15-02).

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