The focus of this study is on how parents and teachers negotiate what is valuable as mathematics education for young children in photo-elicitation focus group interviews (PEIs) with two Norwegian parents and three teachers about photos they had taken of children's mathematics activities at home and barnehage[1]. 

In early mathematics education research, there are many studies about engaging parents in their children's learning (e.g., LeFevre et al., 2010; Missall, Hojnoski, Caskie, & Repasky, 2015). Yet, parent-teacher discussions remain connected to what is happening in the barnehage and rarely include input about mathematics activities at home. According to Foucault, power and knowledge are related in that for power to be exerted certain knowledge needs to be accepted as more valuable than other knowledge, and for knowledge to be accepted as more valuable power will have been exerted. For Foucault, power is fluctuating between people as knowledge comes to be seen as more valuable. When people use highly valued knowledge, they exert power by using this knowledge to describe how something "is", as a truth statement (Gordon, 1980). Therefore, there is a need to understand how power and knowledge play out in the acceptance of particular views about mathematics education as being more valuable. Parents and teachers use their knowledge and experiences to tell narratives about mathematics education for young children. However, the flow of power between parents and teachers will affect which of those narratives are considered more valuable. 

To respond to the research question on how in the interactions do parents' and teachers' views about mathematics education come to be valued? It was necessary to provide opportunities for parents and teachers to talk about mathematics education. Consequently, it was decided to use PEIs. The interviews were held at the barnehage, lasted for 45 minutes and audio-recorded. The data analysis was undertaken using Bruner's narrative construction. Bruner (1991) stated that when people talk, they tend to relate events and activities to earlier experiences, where the personal view is constructed and reconstructed through social interactions. In interactions, parents and teachers roles provide them with the opportunity to interpret other views of mathematics education. In the analysis, I highlight how power and knowledge fluctuate to exert as views as more or less valuable. 

The results show that the teachers acted as a group, where their professional roles contributed to them framing knowledge about mathematics education as more valuable than those told by parents. Teachers drew of the knowledge of outside authorities (e.g. digital apps developed by a university or goals in the curriculum) to reinforce their views that certain ICT practices had higher status. In this way, they have reduced the potential input of parents' views into considering what children did at home as valuable mathematics.

The results suggest that power and knowledge fluctuated between parents and teacher and allowed to exemplify how the dominant view of mathematics education is exercised. 

 [1] Barnehage is the Norwegian term which label institutions for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Norway, for 1–5 year-old children.