The home mathematics environment and children’s early mathematical development in immigrant, refugee, and minority-language families: a scoping review
Early mathematics skills are among the strongest predictors of later academic achievement, with foundations established at home through families' mathematics-related activities, talk, beliefs, and practices. Research on the home mathematics environment (HME), however, draws predominantly on monolingual, majority-group, middle-class Western samples, leaving immigrant, refugee, and minority-language families understudied. This scoping review maps evidence on the HME and early mathematical development in culturally and linguistically minoritized families. Guided by Arksey and O'Malley's framework and PRISMA-ScR, the review included 33 studies meeting Population-Concept-Context criteria, concentrated in the United States (mainly Latine/Hispanic families), Türkiye and Tanzania (refugee families), China (internal migration), and Europe. Findings synthesized under seven themes indicate a scarcity of culturally responsive and multilingual measures, a persistent deficit lens, limited longitudinal and intervention evidence, and underrepresentation of non-Latine populations. Strategies for more inclusive inquiry are proposed, including participatory measure development, home-language assessment, partnership-based recruitment, and funding for translation and community collaboration.
Authors
- Oğuz Serdar Kesicioğlu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1176-1887)
- Muhammed Fatih Küçükkara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5993-0622)
Institutions
- Giresun University (TR)
- Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University (TR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Early Child Development and Care
- Published
- 2026-09-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2026.2735635
- Primary Topic
- Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00