Chapter 7: Exploring Parents’ Cultural Models of Mathematical Knowledge in Multiethnic Primary Schools

In this chapter we will be examining how school-based and out-of-school mathematical practices are understood by parents whose children attend schools that accommodate a particular ethnic group (e.g., either White or South Asian) or schools that have a mix of many different ethnicities. We take the perspective that mathematics learning is an essentially social process bounded by cultural and historical ideas of what counts as mathematical practice (de Abreu, 2008; de Abreu & Cline, 2007). Or perhaps more importantly, our main interest focuses on what understandings of mathematics are shared between the home and school communities. Understanding parents’ mathematical practices is extremely relevant in a context like England where the educational authorities expect them to play a key role in their children’s school math learning (Williams, 2008).