Helping mothers to engage their children in doing Mathematics

Mathematics is one of the major disciplines in the school curricula of Pakistan and around the globe. However, the majority of the student’s do not get positive experiences of learning mathematics in school as well as they often do not get enough support from their parents at home. Though parental engagement in their children’s studies has always been considered important within the home-schooling scenario and during Covid Pandemic, parents’ educational role gets much highlighted. This study attempted to address this issue by exploring how mothers can develop their capacity to engage their children of grade IV and V in doing mathematics in meaningful ways. The thesis is based on a qualitative intervention-based study using a constructivist interpretivist paradigm. The four mothers of grade IV and V students studying in a private school in Gojal valley Hunza Gilgit-Baltistan were selected through purposive sampling. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflective memos on nine capacity building sessions with mothers, and students’ work samples.The obtained data were analysed by using a thematic analysis approach. The initial findings reveal that the overburdened domestic responsibilities do not allow mothers to spend quality time with their children. Also, they believe that they do not possess sufficient content knowledge and are not aware of the emerging pedagogies in the subject. However, after going through the sessions and engaging mothers in the activities, mothers expressed their interest in the subject; and a level of confidence in their ability to engage their children in doing sense-making activities. Mothers highlighted that their focus has changed before they try to get their children to follow routine procedures given in the textbook to solve questions. But now, they engage children in small sense-making activities to get their children to do mathematics in stress-free environment. The study highlighted a need for the education provider to utilise and develop the expertise of mothers to support their children in educational pursuits