The Viviendo Matemáticas project explored the ways in which Latine families with preschool-aged children use their existing strengths, knowledge, and practices to engage in rich mathematics throughout their everyday lives. Over 2 years, the team focused on transforming power hierarchies between families and school, leveraging dialogic and asset-based approaches to support more equitable math learning for Latine children inside and outside the classroom.
Program Overview
In collaboration with Head Start staff and families, the team developed a bilingual program model that includes six afterschool meetings with Head Start educators and Spanish-speaking caregivers. The program begins with separate meetings with caregivers and Head Start staff to build trust with each group and prepare them to engage collectively in ways that honor the expertise and knowledge of both staff and families. The subsequent five meetings bring caregivers and staff together to build community, jointly engage in math activities, and discuss ways to support young children’s math learning across the home and classroom.
Program Outcomes
Findings from 2 years of pilot research suggest the program is highly engaging, broadens participants’ ideas about mathematics, and creates stronger connections between teachers and caregivers. The project also provided new insights into approaches for supporting more equitable relationships between schools and families and for elevating the existing mathematical knowledge within communities.
Resources for Educators and Families
- Program outline—This document provides an overview of the Viviendo Matemáticas program and the primary goals and activities for each meeting.
- Math big ideas—This document outlines the big ideas about math and the group norms that were developed iteratively with participants and helped support interactions during the program.
- Activity guides—These bilingual (Spanish/English) activity guides were developed for each of the primary math activities used during the program meetings and were provided to caregivers and staff (along with take-home materials) at the end of each meeting.
- Storytelling Math books—These books from TERC’s Storytelling Math project were integral to introducing the math activities in the program and making connections to participants’ existing knowledge and experiences.
Project Presentations
- AERA 2025 roundtable—The team outlined power sharing strategies emerging from the pilot research.
- NAEYC 2024 workshop—In this Spanish-language session, the team presented dialogic approaches for strengthening family-teacher relationships and supporting early math learning.
- NSF 2024 presentation—PI Smirla Ramos Montañez provided an overview of the project as part of the NSF-organized showcase of innovative initiatives with Latine communities.
Acknowledgements
Viviendo Matemáticas was a partnership between TERC, Mt. Hood Community College Head Start, New York University Steinhardt, and University of Maryland. We are grateful to the many staff and families who contributed their time and expertise to make this project successful. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2224247. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.