When School Feels Like Home, and Home Feels Like School: Exploring Motherly Mathematics Education

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of motherly mathematics education, which establishes a meaningful and validating space common to the home and school environments, facilitating learners’ ability to transcend the constraints of traditional mathematics instruction. The author describes the basic features of motherly mathematics education based on his personal experiences and classroom practices. The study employs a multi-paradigmatic transformative education method that incorporates art-based (auto)ethnographic enquiry and philosophical analysis rooted in transformative learning theory. Co-generative enquiry is used as a research tool to explore both implicit and explicit aspects of learning mathematics. The overarching research question guiding the study is, how does the author conceptualise key features of motherly mathematics education in instructional practice? The study argues that a motherly mathematics pedagogy supports equity and the diversification of student interests and participation, interpreting the curriculum as the dance of a mosaic of diversity and portraying assessment as an ongoing developmental process.