1 Introduction and rationale

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 and 10 respectively are Quality Education and Reduced Inequality, yet in many countries, learners, particularly poorer learners, fail to become numerate and literate by the end of primary school (see data sets of TIMSS & PIRLS International Study CenterFootnote 1). Cross-national studies highlight large performance gaps in the achievement of wealthier and poorer learners in mathematics and literacy (though more pronounced in mathematics) with South Africa having the greatest gaps by Socio-Economic Status (SES) (Reddy et al., 2016). Reddy et al., (2022, p. 1) note South Africa’s participation in six of the seven TIMSS cycles has “retold the predictable story of advantage begetting advantage at one end of the distribution and compounding disadvantage at the other end.” Adding “But schools have the capacity to positively change educational outcomes.”

Resonating with research that points to early childhood learning opportunities as key for supporting mathematical learning trajectories and closing the gaps between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ (Atweh et al., 2014) South Africa introduced Grade R (R for reception year ages 5–6) as a ‘compulsory’ pre-Grade 1 year in formal schooling (SA DBE 2011a). While Grade R access increased rapidly since its introduction to now over 90%, the quality of teaching (particularly in no and low fee schools) is of concern. Many teachers of this grade are un- or under-qualified (SA DBE 2011b; Spaull et al., 2016) leading to what Feza (2015) terms the Cinderella status of Grade R teachers.

While many factors contribute to educational inequality analysis of South African mathematics performance gaps in studies such as TIMMS consistently note educational and linguistic capital available in homes (particularly, home resources and early learning activities) as key factors (Reddy et al., 2016, 2022). Our contribution to this special issue on Mathematics teaching and teacher education against marginalisation brings attention to the importance of, and opportunities for, supporting marginalised learners from the start of their transition into schooling. Since most South African learners fall mathematically behind within the first few years of school and those who ‘start behind’ (mostly poorer learners) ‘stay behind’ (Spaull & Kotze, 2015) there is need for research of early years mathematics interventions that might attend to this early academic marginalisation of learners (Venkat & Roberts, 2022).

Professional development (PD) work with over forty Grade R teachers run by the first author in 2016 supported teachers to focus attention on mathematical teaching and learning through engaging with number story books designed to elicit learner engagement and stimulate mathematical talk and reasoning. Out of this PD requests arose for the number storybooks and linked resources to be made available to families for home use. The Family Maths Storytime Programme (FMSP) thus emerged which provides the empirical field for the research. It focused on addressing the factors of dissonance between educational and linguistic capital required in early years’ mathematics classrooms and that of low SES homes—leading to academic marginalization of already marginalized learners. The FMSP partnered with Grade R teachers to develop school-based capital through increasing access to quality educational resources and practices (that simultaneously strengthened linguistic capital) in these homes. We highlight this as a point of opportunity for ‘positively [changing] educational outcomes’ (aligning with Reddy et al.’s (2022) point above). We argue that such programmes create useful opportunities for teacher-family discussion around possible ways of engaging with selected school knowledge resources in the home.

Covid-19 prompted increased communication between teachers and families which positively shifted many South African teachers’ deficit perspectives of the role low SES families can play in their children’s mathematical learning (Vale & Graven, 2023). Family focused programmes like the FMSP can build on this unforeseen benefit to strengthen teacher-parent partnerships in supporting early grade learning. While acknowledging economic deficit and challenges that many living in poverty face (over 60% of South Africans—Stats-SA, 2020), we work to bring the rich resources in homes into interaction with the literacy and number learning practices of schooling. For example, the resource of parent ‘buy-in’ to education as a route out of poverty means poorer families often prioritise their children’s education (Fleisch, 2008). Furthermore, many learners have rich informal and multilingual language repertoires (often mixing languages when communicating) that could support learning, yet these are seldom ‘allowed’ in South Africa’s monolingual classrooms (Essien & Msimanga, 2021; Probyn, 2009).

There is thus a need to address the language obstacles that most low SES learners face when learning in a language that they do not speak. South Africa has 12 official languages (sign language was added in July 2023) and while Zulu and isiXhosa are most spoken, English dominates the educational, political, and economic landscape. Despite a Language in Education Policy that promotes mother-tongue instruction in the early grades many learners begin school learning in English with little fluency in or exposure to it beyond the classroom (Robertson & Graven, 2015, 2018)—as is the case for the learners in the Grade R classes in this study who speak isi-Xhosa or Afrikaans at home.

Here we focus on an early years’ Maths story-based intervention for learners in the transition grade into formal schooling and their carers.Footnote 2 In some countries this is called the preparatory year or Grade 0, in South Africa it is called Grade R (reception year). Since research and curricula often state (e.g., ACARA, 2022; De Holton et al., 2001; SA DBE, 2011b) that learning in this year of schooling should be integrated and play-based this grade provides an opportune space for merging home play-learning practices and school practices. The FMSP that generated the data in this article is structured around four number storybooks. These were designed to stimulate mathematical engagement through dialogic reading (Doyle & Bramwell, 2006) of stories rich with numerals, number words, number patterns, and opportunities for subitising, counting and basic calculation. Story linked activities connected numeracy with literacy practices such as pretend reading, recognising sight words, retelling and enacting stories. Simple dice and card games were shared to stimulate further opportunities for play-based mathematical learning opportunities. In relation to the FMSP we ask: Did the Family Maths Storytime Program enable the integration of home and school numeracy and literacy practices? If so, what evidence is there of such integrated practices? What is the nature of the described practices?

A body of literature speaks to how to support marginalised learners mathematically (e.g., Hunter et al., 2016) and the importance of harnessing families as key resources for children’s learning (e.g., Hume et al., 2015; Huntsinger et al., 2016). We however found little research on home-based interventions in the early transition year into schooling that focus on numeracy practices integrated with literacy practices. Our article contributes to this gap and to research on developing ‘teaching’ talk and multimodal communication means to promote learner talk, communication and reasoning in this recently growing field (Planas & Pimm, 2023) focusing on the under-represented early grades.

2 The Family Maths Storytime Programme (FMSP)

The first author holds the South African Numeracy Chair (SANC) at Rhodes University that focuses on research with development to address challenges of primary mathematics learning in so-called ‘previously disadvantaged’ communities. That is, these communities under apartheid were deliberately disadvantaged and while apartheid ended with the 1994 democratic elections this disadvantage continues with highly uneven racial distribution. Several intervention projects emerged since the Chair began in 2011 (See Graven, 2019; Graven et al., 2022). The Early Number Fun (ENF) program was introduced as an intervention that brought together over 40 Grade R teachers, district officials, and researchers, to engage in activities structured around research-informed mathematics learning resources. Teacher requests to make the storybook resources that they had found particularly impactful in their teaching (see Graven & Coles, 2017) available to families paired with community requests to expand our ‘family maths days’ led to the FMSP.

The design of the FMSP was guided by Vygotsky’s and Cole (1978) sociocultural theory that prioritises language as key in the mediation of learning. Resonating with Douglas Barnes notion that ‘learning floats on a sea of talk’ (Simpson et al., 2010) it was assumed that learners should talk their way into understanding mathematical ideas, language, and forms of reasoning. As such the FMSP maximised opportunities for learners to talk about mathematical ideas informally at home building towards classroom aligned discourse. The selected mathematical ideas (e.g., subitising, counting, comparing quantities, etc.) and the demonstrated progression thereof during story engagement (e.g., from count all to count on from largest) was informed by socio-constructivist research on early numeracy learning trajectories (e.g., Clements & Sarama, 2009; Wright et al, 2006).

The first two FMSPs were with carers of Grade R learners in two English medium Grade R classes in low fee public schools. These were accompanied by research of carer and teacher experiences—the former being the focus of this article. The FMSP involved three one-hour sessions, run weekly for the first school (Saints School) and monthly for the second (Oak School). Each session provided carers and learners with a storybook (two in the first session) and linked resources (e.g., numeral and number word cards, dice, cards, paper puppets of story characters). Books and flashcards were given in English and isiXhosa or Afrikaans so that families had the resources in both the language of instruction at school and the language spoken at home. In each session the first author with translation support from teachers demonstrated dialogic reading of the story books with the Grade R children present. Take for example, the first story about five monkeys in a small tree with no monkeys in an adjacent big tree. One monkey repeatedly complains of too many monkeys in the small tree and in each step of the story a monkey jumps to the big tree. Dialogic reading involves asking learners questions like: How many monkeys are there in the small tree? Which tree has more monkeys? How do you know that? What do you think will happen next? If another monkey jumps how many will be in the big tree?

A child then pretend reads the story and thereafter shows the unfolding story moving finger puppets from the small to big tree on a storyboard page in the book. Other learners choose the flash cards to represent each stage of the story and place these (numeral and word cards from 0-zero to 5-five and the cards more and less) at each tree for each stage of the story. Figure 1 shows page 5 from the monkey storybook. Figure 2 is a photo of the storyboard page at the end of book 3 with pairs of ‘puppet’ frogs and flashcards showing a particular stage in the story. In the next stage the learner would ‘jump’ one pair of frogs across from the small to the big lily pad and the other learners would then swop the words more and less around and the numeral and number words of 4-four and 6-six to describe the new quantity of frogs on each.

Fig. 1
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Monkeys in the tree book (p. 5). (See www.ru.ac.za/sanc/mathsathome/storybooks/)

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Fig. 2
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Photograph of ‘retelling’ the ten frogs story with puppets on the storyboard page

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In the modelled reading carers were encouraged to ask similar questions and discuss mathematical aspects of the story encouraging their children to use number words, comparative words and increasingly develop their language of reasoning. It was suggested that they model and encourage ‘number talk’ aiming toward for example, ‘if two frogs jump then there will be more on the big lily pad because …’. These ‘school type’ questions and modelled reasoning were to engage children in a range of school numeracy-literacy processes, including describing and labelling (with subitising and counting), predicting, explaining, inferring, and summarising. Carers were also encouraged to ‘nudge’ children’s progression. For example, it was suggested that carers cut the numerals from the number words once children correctly identify flash cards.

The school ‘game’ of questioning is targeted at enabling learning rather than in the everyday sense of asking questions to which one does not know the answer. That this ‘game’ is not known to all was made clear to the first author when reading a picture book to a friend’s four-year old while repeatedly asking ‘what is this?’—on finishing and telling him “Wow you are very clever” he replied, without malice, “And you are very stupid”. Thus, the game of questioning for supporting learning, in this case supporting young children to learn numeracy and literacy practices, was explicitly promoted to carers for home use. Seminal research studies have captured how different communities’ use and interpret questions differently (Heath, 1983), including specifically in relation to mathematics assessments (Cooper & Dunne, 1999)—leading to differential access to what might be judged as appropriate answers in school contexts.

In Graven and Jorgensen (2018) we shared excerpts from the nine carer interviews from Saints School to illustrate unexpected outcomes of learners’ changing ways of engaging with parents, siblings, and neighbours. In Jorgensen and Graven (2022) we outlined ways stories (including nursery rhymes) can assist numeracy learning in schools and homes. Here, building on this work, we provide a systematic analysis of the carer post FMSP interview data across Saints School (SS) and Oak School (OS)—9 and 11 interviews respectively. We look to understand the way in which the combination of age-appropriate number storybooks (and linked activities) with modelled engagement established a broader range of numeracy/literacy practices in the home.

3 Literature review

While the FMSP was a response to teacher and community requests for home support resources, the choice to involve families in sessions modelling ways of engaging with resources built on the research informed assumption that parents are a key resource for early literacy and numeracy learning (e.g., Hume et al., 2015), with their engagement predicting reading and mathematical learning trajectories (Huntsinger et al., 2016). Numeracy and literacy practices are closely intertwined (see Jorgensen & Graven, 2022), “particularly at the informal numeracy and numeral knowledge phases” (Purpura & Napoli, 2015, p. 197) and early literacy skills have been shown to predict numeracy development (Purpura et al., 2011). Curricula integration involving skills from distinct learning areas being purposefully connected, is promoted in the transition years into schooling (Krogh & Morehouse, 2020; SA DBE, 2011a). In this respect the numeracy exploration in the FMSP connected explicitly with the key early years’ literacy practices of pre-reading (e.g., Ozturk et al., 2016), talking/orality (e.g., Bateman, 2018) and comprehension (e.g., Brook et al., 2017). It also drew on the practice of dialogic reading, the principles of which were first described by Whitehurst et al. (1988), as part of a reading intervention, to include: child activity in the reading, parent encouragement of talk about pictures and ideas with prompts for explanation (‘what’ questions versus yes/no questions) and parent feedback with modelling of possible alternative ways of answering questions and discussing ideas. As Doyle and Bramwell (2006) note this technique has evolved over time in its use by educators. It shares many features with techniques called ‘interactive shared book reading’, ‘active reading’, having conversations with a book etc. (Jorgensen & Graven, 2022).

As noted in the introduction many South African learners (as with the learners in this study) begin schooling in English despite having little exposure to the language in their homes or their communities. Learning in an unfamiliar language creates many obstacles to epistemological access — access that would be supported by home language instruction. This situation occurs because English is perceived to provide access to many socio-economic opportunities (Setati, 2008) and since school governing bodies can choose the language of instruction in classrooms many opt for English even when this is not the dominant language of the community (or the teachers). The absence of the option of bilingual instruction within classrooms thus strips learners from access to their most powerful learning resource (their dominant language). While translanguaging is increasingly entering the academic discourse of South African Mathematics Education (Essien & Msimanga, 2021) there is little clarity on what the term means or guidance for teachers (Robertson & Graven, in press). Translanguaging is common in everyday settings—as a mathematical example, learners speaking in isi-Xhosa might use English number names especially when referring to money (e.g., Ten Rand which is written on the R10 note). The FMSP emphasized the communicative function of language encouraging teachers and families to get learners talking about mathematical ideas using informal, play-based, gesture-supported talk and storytelling in all available languages. The storybooks contained key words such as ‘more’ and ‘less’, terms readily available in everyday talk, though used in the stories to compare quantities and support mathematical reasoning. Of course, dissonance between home and school linguistic capital is not particular to South African learners. For many countries the dominant languages of education are those of the colonisers (Lin & Martin, 2005) and increasing learner migration globally means many learners are learning in a ‘foreign’ language and in a ‘foreign’ culture.

The choice to foreground dialogic reading and linked engagement with finger puppets, dice and cards was influenced by general consensus in early childhood learning literature that learning (including early mathematics learning) should: be play-based (Van-Oers, 1994, 2010), involve multiple modes of representation (kinaesthetic, visual, symbolic—after Bruner (1966)), and use storybooks and storytelling to enhance children’s motivation, engagement and interest in learning (e.g., Roberts, 2016; Yeo et al., 2014). While teaching through play may be under theorised (Wood, 2009), learning through play in early childhood is well established across theoretical perspectives (Wager, 2013). Van Oers (1994, 2010), building on Vygotsky’s idea that the activity of the child is key to development-stimulating learning, argued for replacing early mathematics ‘training’ models with the ‘Bildung’ (2010) approach that sees the process of early development as emerging from children’s own play activities. Play can extend mathematical horizons and increase connections enabling “successful learning and understanding in mathematics generally” (Holton et al., 2001, p. 401). The FMSP design aligned with this literature. Furthermore, we considered that the activities would be easily integrated with home activities of play and storytelling that are part of community life. This said, the play promoted differed from free play and included representational (see Fig. 1), manipulative (see Fig. 2), and rule-bound play (games), providing opportunities for exploration, concept construction, and supporting motivation respectively (Holton et al., 2001, drawing on Dienes (1963)). This aligns with Van Oers (1994, p. 22) argument that while children must see learning processes as “meaningful (interesting) contributions to their play”, learning activities should relate to (and support the transition to) the next stages of the child’s development.

4 Theoretical framing

As noted the FMSP design was influenced by several assumptions guided by theory and literature. In framing this research, we draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, and his key theoretical constructs (Bourdieu, 1977). Bourdieu’s work enables a way of understanding how the practices of formal schooling, of which mathematics is a part, can either acknowledge or deny the habitus that learners bring to school. Often Bourdieu’s concepts are treated simplistically and as stand-alone constructs, but this is a misreading of his approach (Grenfell, 2010, 2014). Bourdieu’s constructs should be considered as being in a dialectical relation to other concepts. For example, the habitus of learners is their embodiment of their culture (Bourdieu, 1977). But this is not fixed and can be reconstituted through exposure to and incorporation of new practices into a secondary habitus. Institutions value particular practices, so that learners who enter school contexts with certain dispositions (and habitus) that align with the school practices are more likely to be constructed as successful learners. From a Bordieuan perspective, this habitus is a form of capital (Bourdieu, 1997), that can be exchanged for rewards (e.g., awards, praise, grades). But for a habitus to have capital, it must be considered as operating within a field—consider the language that learners speak and how this is differentially appreciated by the context within which it is spoken. Thus, the linguistic habitus of the learner can operate as a form of capital (or not) within fields. Here this field is schooling and the early grade classroom.

Bourdieu’s mutually constitutive constructs enable us to make sense of the (primary) habitus that children construct in the home and how this aligns (or not) with the practices of schooling. Where significant differences exist between the home habitus and the practices of schooling, success at school can be challenging. School learning is not only tied to the curriculum knowledge per se, but also with the practices through which that knowledge is relayed to learners. Young learners enter school with their home habitus. To become successful in schooling, they need to navigate through a plethora of practices, and to embody these into a secondary habitus that aligns with the school habitus. This school habitus includes but is not limited to mathematics concepts and structures as well as the methods of relay (or cultural practices) through which mathematics is being conveyed. Young learners, as the focus of this study, are only entering the practices of schooling, so they must also learn the literacy practices associated with the successful engagement with texts. Considerable learning is required as they integrate schooling practices into a reconstituted home habitus.

What is important to consider in this framing is that the primary habitus is not replaced but modified. Elements of the home habitus remain but new dispositions, practices, and ways of seeing, being and doing in the world are created. When learners home habitus practices do not align with the school practices, there is little synergy, limiting success in school. However, when there is overlap and alignment of the home and school habitus, there is potential for success—the greater the overlap, the greater the chance for success in school. This is readily observed in learners from advantaged backgrounds whose cultural practices align well with those valued in schooling. For these learners the overlap is much higher unsurprisingly leading to greater success in school than for their peers from marginalised backgrounds. In this respect creating increased integration of the home habitus and the school habitus, where school and home play and storytelling practices are combined in purposefully designed FMSP activities to support transition to the next stages of mathematical development (Van Oers, 1996), is considered supportive of school learning.

Thus, what Bourdieu’s theory allowed us to consider was how the FMSP provides learners and their families access to the practices of school numeracy, with key resources for home use, for them to build new knowledges, practices and understandings that would reshape their home habitus enabling greater overlap with school practices. This could create new forms of knowing and being (i.e., a modified home habitus) to support learning in the school context. The reshaped habitus is referred to as a secondary habitus since in the space of overlap the practices, dispositions and knowledge of the learners have been reshaped supporting pathways to success in school numeracy. An opportune way to achieve this is through focusing on the shared practices of both spaces. Since storytelling and play are present in both the home and early years school practices these were considered ideal mediums for promoting numeracy practices for learners for whom school numeracy/literacy was not a significant part of their home habitus. The provision of number storybooks and linked resources (with modelled engagement for learning) provided a novel way to help the transition from informal home practices into practices integral to school numeracy and literacy practices.

A further construct of value to our work is Bourdieu’s (1977) notion of doxa referred to as ‘a feel for the game’. As learners enter and engage with the formal context of schooling, they come to engage with the game of learning and the pedagogic relay through which teaching and learning are operationalised (Jorgensen, 2016). The value of doxa comes from its often unrecognised acceptance and understandings of practice (Eagleton & Bourdieu, 1992). This concept highlights for us that young learners need to learn the game of schooling (and enacting literacy/numeracy school practices) to be constructed as ‘successful’ learners. There is a strong synergy between the habitus and doxa (Vakalopoulos, 2022) as students come to learn the practices of schooling to embody them in their habitus in ways that are naturalised and normalised, often without conscious thinking. Questioning, as discussed earlier, is a prime example of how doxa is realised, or not.

Using Bourdieu’s framework, we take the notion that the resources created in the FMSP enable developing new numeracy/literacy practices at home. Through the sessions carers were immersed in numeracy/literacy practices that not only enabled their children to engage with these per se, but also supported them to build their understanding of how to mediate numeracy/literacy learning (play the learning game) to develop school-based forms of reasoning, languaging (Swain, 2006) and engaging. In doing so, participation in the FMSP supported building a new habitus for the carers as they came to embody understandings and practices associated with supporting their children to learn to read and become numerate. As these practices are highly valued in the school context, they become forms of capital within schools. The learners in the FMSP are from low SES isi-Xhosa and Afrikaans speaking communities. While some carers indicated that they had some books (such as the bible or bible stories) in the home they explained that they did not have age-appropriate books or learning resources for young learners. In Bourdieu’s terms the FMSP thus worked to build learners’ literacy and numeracy capital, dispositions and practices in their home habitus.

5 Methodology

After the FMSP, interviews were conducted with 20 carers and two teachers by members of the project team in situ. The data in this article is from the carers and not inclusive of the teachers. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and entered into NVivo (Edhlund and McDougall, 2018; Elliott-Mainwaring, 2021)—a qualitative data analysis package based on grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). This allowed for the development of nodes representing the ideas participants explored in interviews. As the data were coded, clusters of ideas emerged leading to identification of broader themes. Collectively, this type of coding creates a thematic analysis that identifies patterns and trends in the data (Elliott-Mainwaring, 2021). Typically, data are coded around the questions posed to the participants but in this case, the responses often overlapped requiring a more complex coding to cater for the highly open-ended responses. The use of grounded theory in Nvivo involves a dynamic and evolving process. What seem to be clusters of ideas in the codes begin to show trends in the data so that key themes emerge. This process is an integral part of the grounded theory approach. Rather than remain at a micro level of data (or nodes), the clusters of ideas point to themes allowing researchers a more holistic and rich analysis of the data.

The risk of biased coding is widely noted and debated in the initial grounded theory approach. Coding of data can be problematic depending on how the data are coded and verified. A major debate has been around the forcing of codes as opposed to the emergence of codes (Walker & Myrick, 2006). Where we initially sought to force the codes (based on experience and initial reading of interviews), we found this did not work for our data or our intentions. Initially, the first author read the data colour coding carer responses into broad themes. These themes were provided to a research assistant to systematically categorise responses in Nvivo into these and to generate sub themes as needed. This forcing of coding did not however yield consistency in the coding. Being too close to the context it was decided that the second author would code the interviews using NVivo emergent coding to give greater ‘objectivity’ and systematicity to the coding. The nodes pointed to four general clusters of ideas related to new learner practices, new learner ways of being, new learner knowledge and carer self-reflections.

After the emergent NVivo coding by the second author, member checking was undertaken by the first author to ensure that categories were recognisable and robust. Some discussions occurred around use of nodes such as ‘reading to family and friends’ as different from or the same as ‘wanting to read the books’ and ‘taking on the role of the teacher’. While there is similarity between these nodes, in learners proactively leading the reading process, there also marked differences in the actuality of the nodes. The advantage of NVivo is that over time, depending on the focus of the analysis, these nodes can remain separate or be combined into one category that incorporates the notion of taking a leadership role in the reading process. For the purposes of this research, we mostly kept nodes separate because the comments provided by carers included specific details and examples that we did not want to lose if subsumed into a larger node. The finalised nodes were grouped across the four clusters of ideas (that pointed to emergent themes), the first three of which aligned clearly with Bourdieu’s constructs of practices, dispositions and capital. The four themes were thus named New Learner Practices; New Learner Dispositions; New Learner Capital and Carer Self-reflections. See Table 1 for the categorisation of nodes across these four themes (Table 2 includes sub nodes). Carer self-reflections, while not the focus of interviews, similarly pointed to shifts in their own practices, dispositions and capital in relation to supporting their children’s transition to school learning.

Table 1 Summary of primary nodes categorised across four themes
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Due to the complexity of the responses, responses did not always fall neatly into a single node. Often a comment was coded across more than one node. For example, in the quote below, Zen is talking about the child playing with cards (New Learner Practice NP), showing leadership by initiating the activity and controlling resources (New Learner Dispositions ND).

Zen (OS): And what I like is that she's always initiating it. She wants to be a leader in a way, she wants to be the one who's shuffling the cards, giving out the cards, doing the counting, how many do you have left. [NP v; ND vii—See Table 2 for node numbering]

Coding these different practices and dispositions separately captures the complex narrative offered. The carer refers to leadership, being in control of the resources and several different numeracy concepts. Although each is a brief comment contained within a much larger response, the whole response was coded across two different nodes linked to two themes (NP and ND). Coding whole responses across codes thus gave more context to the narratives that carers shared. This said, coding is a subjective process and variations can occur between coders and over time, but the value is in the trends in the coding rather than on the specific frequencies shown. Such trends are likely to endure over time and between coders.

Collectively, we were seeking to find what changes may have occurred as the learners and carers engaged with the resources and processes of the FMSP. These included changes in carers’ behaviours and thoughts, changes in learner’s behaviours and numeracy (and literacy) understandings as well as changes in the learners’ ways of being. These changes indicate changes in the habitus of the learners and carers. What is considered is whether these changes in the habitus aligned with school practices and dispositions and could be exchanged for forms of capital within the school environment.

6 Findings

Here we expand on the findings in relation to our four emergent themes that indicate modification of the primary home habitus to a habitus that intersects with the school habitus for learners as explained above. We begin with the first three themes that related to stated changes in the learners’ habitus.

6.1 New learner practices (NP)

Carers discussed how their children developed new practices around literacy and numeracy not visible before participating in the FMSP. This theme was constructed when combing the nodes: retelling stories; modelling teaching; reading to friends and family; playing with dice; playing with cards and linking to other learning spaces. Carers indicated these were new practices linked to the use of specific FMSP resources. These practices align well with the practices of schooling, and we argue, that these practices reflect a modified home habitus for these learners that has greater overlap with practices in the school habitus.

6.2 New learner dispositions (ND)

From a Bordieuan frameworks, the habitus is represented in the dispositions of the learner. Many carers’ comments spoke to changes in learner dispositions. These included changes in: confidence including numerically; enjoyment of reading; wanting to read; improved sociability and/or positive relationships with family and friends; being competitive; general learning dispositions (e.g., perseverance) and leadership as leading activities and as controlling resources. These suggest that the habitus of the learners had been changed through participation in the FMSP.

6.3 New learner capital (NC)

Carer responses also highlighted visible changes in what the learners had gained in terms of literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills, as well as general learning capital. These are forms of knowledge valued within the school context and hence are forms of knowledge capital per se. As the data show (see Table 2), there was a sense of the learners gaining access to, and proficiency in, playing the game of schooling (doxa). While developing numeracy and literacy knowledge were unsurprising given this was the focus of the FMSP carers additionally noted general learning capital gains mentioning for example their children learning to ask ‘school type’ learning questions, listen, and follow game rules.

Table 2 provides the summary coding of all carer utterances, about their children’s FMSP linked engagement, categorised across our first three themes. The number of utterances for each node and theme are provided in the frequency column (f). Next to it is the number of carers who contributed ideas linked to each node (nc). Table 2 indicates multiple responses across carers that indicated their children were adopting new practices (89 responses), new dispositions (61 responses) and new capital (119 responses) of which most (83/119) linked to numeracy capital. Note that we chose to avoid double placement of nodes into themes even when some ideas shared could be considered highly relevant to two themes. For example, counting, subitising and asking learning questions are all practices—but in the context of the interviews were generally spoken about to highlight the new knowledge gains of children. We thus accorded these the new numeracy knowledge node that was placed in the New Learner Capital theme along with new literacy and new general learning capital respectively. Indeed, the integrated nature of practices, dispositions and capital mean that some nodes will likely connect to more than one theme. In the end it was the theme in focus in the broader comments that led to where each node was placed in the summary Table 2.

Table 2 Codes of learners’ changing practices, dispositions and capital with exemplar responses
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6.4 Carer self-reflections

Since the FMSP aimed to assist carers to increase their children’s access to numeracy/literacy learning resources (given their restricted access to school aligned resources in the home), it is unsurprising that carers also reported changes to their habitus in terms of supporting their children in this. They also spoke of engaging children in new ways and practices (including asking them ‘learning’ questions); learning about how children learn numeracy and reading and the benefits of participating in the program (such as their own enjoyment of reading with children and engaging in age-appropriate learning activities with children). The findings in this theme were pleasing as they showed substantial self-reporting of new learnings and gains by the carers in the FMSP aligned to the aim of supporting their children’s learning in transitioning from home to school learning.

Table 3 provides the summary coding of all carer self-reflections (fourth theme), with examples of how they spoke of their engaging with children in new practices (34 utterances), their learning about how children learn and how to support that learning (55) and what they gained from participation in the FMSP (16). Of interest the practice of asking school type questions was the most prevalent node (24) with utterances from 13 of the 20 carers. The practice of making time for engaging children in learning activities (10) was also highlighted along with learning about: children’s numeracy learning and how to extend it (10 + 5), literacy learning and how to read to children (11 + 13) and children’s general learning (10). The most stated gain from FMSP participation was enjoyment of reading to their children (8).

Table 3 Codes of carer self-reflections
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While NVivo added considerable value in identifying themes in the data its use had limitations. The key purpose of NVivo was to code the interview responses for the content. As shown in Table 1, these themes emerge from the coding and point to ways in which the stated practices, dispositions and capital align with those valued in schooling. However, the interpretation that these are all new to the home habitus is not entirely clear from the nodes other than that many relate directly to FMSP provided resources. Pointing to key changes in the home habitus, a further data pattern not evident from the NVivo coding, was a recurrent phrase used across carers, namely, ‘but now…’ or the variant ‘because now…’. Coding full responses (to maintain context) rather than coding at the level of sentence or parts of sentences, meant missing this key recurrent phrase in the data. This key discursive shift in the data was seen as a clear indication of the changing habitus of both carers and learners because of participation in the FMSP. In the next section, we link the key themes with this discursive shift to illustrate the way in which carers attribute the changed (more school aligned) practices, dispositions and capital to being as a result of participation in the FMSP and regular engagement with the new ideas promoted.

6.5 Recurrent phrase: discursive shifts

To answer our research question of whether the FMSP enabled the new practices, dispositions and capital a further analysis of initial reading of the data where the phrase ‘but now…’ or ‘because now…’ was undertaken. This was done by combining all interview documents (n = 20) and conducting a word search on the combined document and a reading of each within its context to categorise each. A total of 40 separate ‘but now …’ or ‘because now…’ responses appeared across the data sets from 15 carers. Analysis of these utterances indicated that the ‘something new’ at home was spread across our four themes. That is, they indicated:

  • New Learner Practices (10 utterances from 8 carers).

  • New Learner Dispositions (12 utterances from 4 carers).

  • New Learner School-aligned Forms of Capital (7 utterances from 5 carers).

  • New Carer practices, dispositions and capital: (11 utterances indicated by 9 carers).

Here we share and analyse changes attributed explicitly to participation in the FMSP as indicated by the phrase ‘but now…’ or ‘because now…’ in these four themes (that align with the NVivo emergent themes). This provides further evidence (and illumination) of changes in the primary habitus of learners and carers.

6.5.1 New learner practices

The key word analysis showed that new learner practices were evident to carers. In the comment below, which exemplifies the comments in this theme, the learner has not only gained confidence in her reading but wants to share her reading practices with her family. This eagerness to read has resulted in family reading time—something that was new to the practices of the family.

Desi SS: She would be shy because she doesn’t always read to her father. But now with this project, she always reads to him.… Because now with this project we have time to read together as a family.

The new practices also related to numeracy and sociability. For example, Shae indicates that her daughter’s home habitus has shifted to where she has friends with whom she is confident and willing to play numeracy games.

Shae SS: She never had friends calling, but now she is more interested in teaching them how to count.

Like Shae, other carers gave examples of children using FMSP resources to ‘play teacher’ with others. These changes will auger well with the practices they will encounter in the formal school context as now there is greater alignment between practices in the home and school habitus.

6.5.2 New learner dispositions

As Bourdieu has argued, the habitus is evident in the dispositions of learners. Carers’ comments pointed to visible changes in the dispositions of their learners. These varied considerably ranging from being more confident, articulate and eager to engage in learning activities and games with increasing resilience, as captured in these two comments:

Nati OS: Because he's a very sensitive person, when he loses then he sort of shatters, but now when he loses he's okay, he's looking forward to the next game so that he can beat you.

Esha OS: What I can notice, I'm very good now in my English too because I didn't do this from my first child, but now she's the one who pushes me to read for her every day. If I take homework for my boy she says no, I want homework too.

Nathi’s comment referred to her child moving from being ‘shattered’ when he would lose or fail in activities, to one who now is more resilient and able to move forward. This disposition will be invaluable in the formal school context where there will be many situations where there will be winners and losers — the game of schooling being enacted in many levels of classroom and school life. In the second comment Esha cites several dispositions that will sit well with her child when she enters school. Not only being keen to read, but also levels of English and being keen to ‘do homework’. Being confident and willing to engage in learning is an important disposition in the school setting. In Shae’s comment below, she notes these attributes that have emerged through participation in the FMSP.

Shae SS: Our child was very quiet, but now when you came, it’s like you took her out of that quiet corner. She opens up to everyone. So, you must keep up the good work.

The dispositions carers identified here are ones that have high currency in the classroom. These dispositions form the habitus and will enable new ways of being and acting in the classroom in literacy, numeracy and beyond.

6.5.3 New learner capital

While the habitus, as discussed above, is important, it must be considered within the context of the field —in this case, mathematics education specifically and education more generally. When considered within different fields, the reconstituted habitus may have different value. What was clear from the previous section was that the habitus (dispositions) being formed would be of value in the classroom and particularly for learning numeracy and literacy. As such they serve as forms of capital in early grade classrooms. Here we discuss the notion of capital particularly in relation to numeracy learning.

Below, Bonnie and Bae cite the new forms of mathematical knowledge the learners have gained from participating in the project, including numeracy skills, understandings and dispositions towards mathematics that will position them as ‘good’ learners when in school.

Bonni OS: It can ease their, even for her to recognise the numbers and then even to identify them, yes, because when we started he didn't recognise the words but now with this programme he is starting to recognise them.

Bae OS: It has changed, because now, at first when you had like 5 and 5 then she'd count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but now she automatically knows that 5 and 5 is 10.

These new mathematical forms of knowledge constitute a form of capital in the context of learning mathematics in the early grade classroom. This knowledge can be exchanged for other rewards including grades, praise and awards within the classroom.

6.5.4 New carer habitus

While the project aimed to support learners from vulnerable communities in South Africa, it also sought to support carers to learn how to support their children in learning skills and dispositions valued in schools. The carers in the FMSP gained significant learnings that modified their habitus in terms of how they supported their children in the transition to school. The comment by Bonni shows she has learned that she can support her child by engaging with her and the importance of planning for quality and productive time with her child.

Bonni SS: From my side, it helped me a lot since I am a single parent, and most of the time I am working outside and I come back home late. But now I have learned I should make a schedule of my time so that I know at this time I should [contact] with my child.

Similarly, Nati, notes that she now recognises the value of reading and how to read with the child. Her habitus has changed, and she recognises the value of understanding what the child knows through listening and talking with the child. The reflexivity in the engagement with her child suggests a profound shift in how Nati now engages with her child.

Nati OS: I've not been doing this in terms of sitting and reading with him. I would read a book once in a while, so I was not very participative, but now I get to understand, I get to his level and understand how he thinks.

Esha’s comment highlights the way in which she has learnt to ask school type questions to stimulate learning and engagement and her awareness that this will help her child when she gets to Grade 1.

Esha OS: She's better because before she didn't know anything until I got those books from you, because now even on Wednesday by the time she was taking that book, the new book, I ask her can you show me the word for more, and she was ‘there is it and there is less’ and I’m also trying to say to her after I've got those books, I say to her can you tell me the number before 5….So after I got those books, I told myself that I must ask her also because in Grade 1 they used to ask those things, ‘what's the number before 10?’

The opening statement by Esha ‘didn’t know anything until’ could imply a problematic devaluing of her daughter’s home knowledge prior to participation in the FMSP. While the comment suggests that the carer recognises the modification from the home habitus to one that overlaps with the school habits, this statement taken at face value must be problematised as it suggests that Esha does not recognise the power of the knowledge her child brought to the program. Our non-deficit approach means we oppose devaluing the home habitus. However, what such a comment suggests for future work is to acknowledge and celebrate the home habitus more explicitly through highlighting how the FMSP builds on children’s existing home knowledge, practices and dispositions.

7 Concluding remarks

At the outset of this article, we sought to describe the research findings of an innovative programme implemented with marginalised communities in South Africa. As described, the FMSP partners with Grade R teachers to work with families with limited resources—both physically and in terms of school preparedness. It emerged from work with Grade R teachers in a PD programme that sought to merge mathematics and literacy learning through engaging with number storybooks. While the two FMSP interventions in this article were run by the first author, in partnership with teachers, other current FMSP interventions are run by teachers involved in developmental sessions with groups of early grade teachers. The experiences and research findings from these first two interventions are shared with teachers in the development sessions and teacher input has led to some resource adaptations. The FMSP is one of several key SANC interventions being implemented by teachers across multiple schools. We argue that mathematics teaching and teacher education against marginalisation should foreground opportunities for teachers working with families, especially in the early years of the transition into schooling. In the above respects our research informs all three aspects of this Special Issue.

What we have seen from the FMSP data is the value in working with families to enable them to support their children in developing school knowledge and practices. The rich data provided by the carers illustrates their and their children’s growth in understandings of the numeracy, literacy, and general practices of schooling. The incorporation of these learnings into the habitus of the participants (both carers and learners) is encouraging and offers evidence of the value in attempting to redress structural inequality by explicitly sharing with families the implicit, but often hidden, knowledge of school mathematics learning practices. These learnings might offer new ways of redressing inequality in education and provide ways forward to addressing the educational marginalisation of already marginalised learners and their families.

We conclude with a quote from a parent that indicates that providing and modelling using quality age-appropriate story-based numeracy-literacy resources in the informal home space is a powerful enabler of talk-for-learning and developing school aligned practices, dispositions and forms of capital:

Lee SS: What is nice about it, is, if ever they have difficulties in understanding in these sessions, they are shy and they won’t ask questions. But in their own space at home, they are more confident. I think kids learn more when things are informal and not as formal as in the classroom. That’s when they know they must focus more. They don’t have the freedom to add words when they express themselves.

Indeed, the quote also points to the importance of classroom-based interventions aimed at supporting teachers to enable and encourage learners to express themselves in class with whatever means they have available to them—as was the aim of the Early Number Fun Grade R professional development programme from which the FMSP emerged.