Maths educator Professor Marta Civil on fostering participation

“Children and adults bring cultural ways of participation different from ones expected by schools. This is an asset – not a problem,” says Professor Marta Civil.

Civil is an American maths educator based in Tucson, Arizona.  In association with the Centre for Research in Mathematics Education – part of Massey University’s Institute of Education, codirected by Associate Professor Jodie Hunter – Civil is holding a series of talks on maths education.  

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Communities as funds of knowledge 

Tuscon, Arizona is the birthplace of the Funds of Knowledge approach, which Civil has been working with for over 30 years.  

The Funds of Knowledge project is aimed at countering “deficit thinking”, which tends to be applied to minoritised children in the classroom. In the Tuscon context, minoritised students are mostly of Mexican origin, meaning some families are Spanish dominant and some bilingual. Within the funds of knowledge framework, households of Mexican origin are reconceptualised as holding valuable educational resource in the forms of skills, knowledge and competencies. However, this educational resource is essentially invisible to schools due to existing power structures which reinforce the dominant view of knowledge and education.  

Mathematical funds of knowledge  

Civil’s talk addressed four main questions: 

• Status: What does it mean to be good at maths?

• Nature of maths task: Whose knowledge and experiences are represented?

• Approaches: Whose and what approaches are valued?

• Language(s): Which language and forms of communication are privileged?

Over an hour, Civil outlined how dominant cultures are consistently prioritised in maths classrooms, which can diminish participation from minority cultures. In the classroom, children were acutely aware of status given to “high-performing” students who were often of certain ethnicities and social classes.  

Civil outlined her work with parents and maths communities, using examples of tasks that deviated from these norms and therefore fostered participation from minoritised groups.  

One example was a parent-teacher maths workshop around complex fractions, which asked participants to make paper flowers. Paper flowers hold cultural significance in Mexican communities, where they are used for Day of the Dead celebrations. This workshop saw a Mexican parent take the lead. They drew confidence from their cultural knowledge of the task.  

Another example followed from an intermediate aged student who was able to verbally explain his maths working in Spanish. Using Mexican-Spanish slang he was able to explain the mathematical concept correctly and relate it to his context, demonstrating the value of allowing children and communities to bring their culturally embedded skills and knowledge to the maths classroom.  

Practising a funds of knowledge approach  

The funds of knowledge project emphasises that “culture” here refers to the lived experiences and practices of families in the communities rather than an assumed conception of culture. This means practising a funds of knowledge approach necessarily means meaningful engagement with the community a school serves.  

Civil says that teachers looking to implement funds of knowledge principles in their classrooms should look for opportunities to collaborate with the communities they serve. This means: 

• Advocating for children and families who can be erased,

• Questioning the practices and policies in place and how they could be more inclusive,

• Challenging deficit language and asking for evidence rather than assuming,

• Focusing on resource-based teaching and learning,

• Treating home knowledge and diversity as an asset, and

• Learning from students and families.

“Being a learner as much as a teacher has been the most gratifying experience,” says Civil.  

Civil says teachers should look out for the strengths that non-dominant children bring to the classroom such as multiple languages, diverse approaches to maths tasks and experiences that are mathematically rich.  

Professor Marta Civil will hold another free lecture titled “Parents as resources for mathematics teaching and learning” on Thursday 6 March at 4 PM at May Road School, Auckland.  

Interested educators can RSVP with Professor Jodie Hunter (j.hunter1@massey.ac.nz).