Description

HOME-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIPS AND MATHEMATICS LEARNING IN- AND OUT-OF-SCHOOL: COLLABORATION FOR CHANGE: A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY IN A BAHRAINI PRIMARY SCHOOL.
(PhD thesis, Bristol University) By: Osama Mahdi Al-Mahdi
This study aimed to learn more about the perceptions of parents, children and teachers regarding home-school relationships and mathematics learning in and out-of-school in Bahrain, to introduce new ideas which emphasise the social and cultural dimension of mathematics learning, and utilise these new ideas to design and implement novel mathematical learning activities. These activities aimed to encourage social interaction between parents and their children and utilise home resources to enrich school learning.

This study draws on theoretical ideas and research which call for more recognition and utilisation of the social and cultural resources available in children’s homes and out-of-school environments. This small scale case study drew on action research ideas carried out in one classroom in a primary boys school in Bahrain. The data collection process included: semi-structured interviews with teachers and parents, focus groups with children, visual data, namely photographs taken by children, and analysis of school documents. The project also included novel mathematics learning activities carried out by the children at home and in the classroom.

The results indicated there were variations between the different groups of parents and between parents and teachers in terms of their perceptions about home-school relationships and mathematics learning in- and out-of-school. Parents with different social and cultural backgrounds can have different relationships and types of communication with school. More work is needed to improve home-school communication and to involve parents more in their children’s education. The results also indicated that children's out-of-school mathematical practices were not highly recognised and utilised by the participant teachers and parents in the process of children's mathematics learning. Finally, the outcomes of the project indicated that this intervention was successful in finding ways to improve some aspects of home-school communication through providing opportunities of home-school knowledge exchange and two-way communication; and, in enriching and extending children's mathematics learning by providing more opportunities for parental involvement in this area of learning as well as making some connections between children’s in- and out-of-school mathematics practices.