Very limited research exists on middle class African American families doing math homework. The present study examines the real life experiences of African American families doing math homework, with special emphasis on emotional and motivational factors that contribute to African American homework practices. This study focuses on 3 African American middle class families, all in 1 elementary school, doing 4th grade math homework. Students in Grade 4 and their parents are interviewed to examine what math homework means to them and what they believe about math homework. In addition, two teachers are interviewed to provide their perspectives of the aforementioned subject matter. Both parent and child in each case study are interviewed using open-ended topics to examine the motivational and emotional factors of homework practices among the three families. The researcher observes the students’ homework experiences for about 1 hour. Documents from all families are collected to gain insight into the homework experiences. These case studies combine interviews, observations, documents, and data analysis to look closely at the homework experiences of these students. Major findings include atypical math homework practices in terms of Caucasian middle class norms: The families believed that math homework was challenging and a serious business matter. Therefore, they worked twice as hard with a sense of urgency and priority at completing math homework. The mothers approached math homework with a warm, yet firm demeanor by providing external motivation through pushing their daughters, who lacked interest in math homework.

Läxor är en del av undervisningen i många skolor idag. Det finns många tankar om hur läxan ska vara utformad och i vilket syfte eleverna ska ges läxa. I vår läroplan, Lgr 11 (Skolverket, 2011), finns dock inget skrivet om läxor. Syftet med min studie är att ta reda på hur matteläxan uppfattas ur ett elevperspektiv. Vilken uppfattning har eleverna om varför de får matteläxa och hur ser uppfattningen ut gällande utformningen? Detta undersöker jag genom en kvalitativ studie i form av semistrukturerade gruppintervjuer med elever på lågstadiet. Den data som samlas in bearbetas utifrån en induktiv tematisk analys. Resultatet visar bland annat att den vanligaste läxan som eleverna får är den som behandlar färdighetsträningen. Eleverna uppfattar matteläxan som att det är något de ska träna på hemma. Dock är matteläxan sällan individanpassad och uppfattas av många elever som alldeles för lätt och att den går alldeles för fort att göra. Inte heller framkommer att det finns någon uppföljning av matteläxan i skolan, som kopplas ihop med dess syfte. Min förhoppning med denna studie är att den ska lyfta fram elevernas uppfattning och tankar omkring matteläxan och ge mig som verksam lärare en vägledning till utformningen av mina matteläxor. / Homework is part of the teaching in many schools today. There are many thoughts about how the homework should be designed and for what purpose the students should be given homework. However, in our curriculum, Lgr 11 (Skolverket, 2011), nothing is written about homework.   The purpose of my study is to find out how the math homework is perceived from a student perspective. What view do the students have about why they get math homework and what does the perception of the design look like? I study this through a qualitative study in the form of semi-structured group interviews with pupils at the lower grades. The data collected is processed based on an inductive thematic analysis. The result shows, among other things, that the most common homework that the students receive is the one who treats the skills training. The students perceive the math homework as something that they should train at home. However, the math homework is rarely individualized and perceived by many students as being too easy and too fast to do. Nor does it appear that there is any follow-up of the math homework at school, which is linked to its purpose.   My hope with this study is that it will highlight the students' perceptions and thoughts about the math homework and give me as an effective teacher a guide to the design of my math homework’s.