Alumnus receives NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship to research Latinx family influences on math motivation

The National Science Foundation awarded alumnus Nestor Tulagan (Ph.D. ’20, right) a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship to study family influences on Latinx middle schoolers’ math motivational beliefs and performance.

Part of the NSF’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences program, the project will focus on understanding Latinx parents’ cultural funds of knowledge in math in order to develop a reliable, valid measure for capturing parent behaviors.

​Research will be conducted among the youth participants and parents affiliated with UCI’s afterschool activity, Math CEO, a program designed and directed by Alessandra Patano, associate professor of teaching in the UCI Department of Mathematics

Tulagan will serve as principal investigator, with Professor Sandra Simpkins (below) serving as co-PI.

“The most exciting part about this project for me is the opportunity to sit down and talk with local parents and learn more about how they see math as relevant in their kids’ everyday lives and the different ways that they support their kids’ math learning and motivation at home,” Tulagan said. “Our understanding of the culturally based ways that Latinx parents help their children in math, specifically, and academics more generally is still growing.”

The project aims to strengthen Math CEO to better serve youth by understanding how Latinx families and organized afterschool activities can build mutually informative partnerships to foster students’ math motivation and achievement. Findings are expected to guide efforts to improve Math CEO curricula as well as to develop practical, cost-effective resources aimed at enhancing parents’ math support at home.

“Dr. Tulagan is a strong scholar. It is my honor to work with him and Math CEO on this project,” Simpkins said. “Parents do so much to help their children every single day, though sometimes it goes unnoticed. We are excited to learn from families about what they do to help support their children in math and how we at UCI can support their efforts. We hope that the findings of this project will further strengthen families and outstanding organized afterschool activities, like Math CEO.”      
 
As a student in the school’s Ph.D. in Education program, Tulagan specialized in Human Development in Context (HDiC). His dissertation research examined the role of stage-environment fit in the socialization strategies that African American mothers implement to foster seventh graders’ academic achievement. His advisor was Distinguished Professor Jacquelynne Eccles.

While a doctoral student, Tulagan received a 2015 Eugene Cota Robles Fellowship, a 2015 Provost Ph.D. Fellowship, a 2016 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the 2019 Associated Doctoral Students in Education Outstanding Service Award, and the 2020 Keith Curry Graduate Scholarship.