Effective mathematics home-school partnerships that enhance student learning are an area of interest for educators and researchers worldwide. Developing such partnerships can be challenging and complex, however, especially in communities that are culturally and linguistically diverse. This study focuses on the mathematics home-school partnership within a low-socio-economic primary school in South Auckland, New Zealand. It investigates the experiences, beliefs, perceptions, and practices of parents and teachers concerning mathematics teaching and learning. The study had 35 participants; 18 teachers and 17 parents. Teachers participated in an online questionnaire that inquired about how they engage families in student’s mathematics learning, alongside their perceptions regarding how families support their children at home. Parents participated in one of five focus groups during which they discussed their personal experiences of assisting their children to learn mathematics. Focus groups were designed with community members to be culturally and linguistically inclusive, including providing translation support and culturally-appropriate ways of working. Findings from the questionnaire and focus groups revealed that a number of tensions were present in the existing mathematics home-school partnership. These occurred within the reporting, homework, student-led conference practices and were additionally caused by ineffective communication concerning mathematics strategies and vocabulary. The study also identified that parents in this community showed a high level of agency and aspired for their children to succeed in mathematics. The findings suggest that existing practices within the mathematics home-school partnership need to be reviewed and improved to meet the needs of the parents within the community. Furthermore, teachers need to provide clear explanations of the strategies they teach in class to parents, as well as being mindful of how they respond to different strategies that children bring into the classroom from home. Policymakers also need to consider the needs and desires of parents when reviewing and amending educational policies such as reporting.

International Perspectives and Research on Social Justice in Mathematics Education is the highly acclaimed inaugural monograph of The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast now available through IAP. The book covers prescient social, political and ethical issues for the domain of education in general and mathematics education in particular from the perspectives of critical theory, feminist theory and social justice research. The major themes in the book are (1) relevant mathematics, teaching and learning practices for minority and marginalized students in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Israel, Palestine, and the United States., (2) closing the achievement gap in the U.K, U.S and Iceland across classes, ethnicities and gender, and (3) the political dimensions of mathematics. The fourteen chapters are written by leading researchers in the international community interested and active in research issues of equity and social justice.

We all worry about our kids learning math. Even if the kids are in school, there’s always a concern. Sometimes it’s about the kid’s concern… sometimes it’s about their teacher’s concern (parent-teacher or otherwise). But a lot of the time it’s about US. It’s about our own math-phobias – those ‘fears, dislikes, or aversions’ that we picked up from our own math experiences and that we inadvertently pass on to our kids. We don’t want them to be afraid of math – we know that limits their opportunities and makes their lives harder and costs them more money – but we just can’t help it. This book is here to help you deal with your own math-phobias and come to – if not outright enjoy math, to at least appreciate it and be able to convey it to your kids without passing on the fear. Kerridwen Mangala McNamara is NOT a ‘math-lover’ but she is a math-appreciator and has worked through most of these issues herself. Let her help you along your homeschooling journey and show you how to fight the Fear-of-Math monster so that it no longer intimidates you – or your kids!

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

Written by authors well known in their fields, Merttens and Vass bring together diverse and different views on IMPACT of wide reading appeal. In the current economy, should teachers be regarded as producers and parents as consumers? There is no issue in education more urgent than that concerning the relationships between parents, teachers and children. The IMPACT project involves individuals concerned with formal maths education including students, teachers, parents, governors, researchers, inspectors and education offcers. Its primary aim is to bring together parents and children so they share regular maths activities together, the results of which are brought back into class to inform the following week's work. IMPACT is also an initiative in maths INSET training and a form of monitoring.; The book is aimed at therapists, educational psychologists, education students, teachers, academics, parents, governors, inspectors and education officers.

This book provides tips and strategies to help school leaders improve, neutralize, or eliminate resistant and negative teachers. Learn how to handle staff members who gossip in the teacher's lounge, consistently say "it won't work" when any new idea is suggested, send an excessive number of student to your office for disciplinary reasons, undermine your efforts toward school improvement, or negatively influence other staff members. Don’t miss the revised and expanded third edition of this best-seller!

Challenging preconceived ideas and supporting children to acquire mathematical understandings, Parental Engagement and Out-of-School Mathematics Learning informs innovative and vital educational policy and practice.