This paper examines parental understandings about their child’s mathematical achievement and the resources they use to go about gaining information in culturally diverse learning settings. This examination takes place within a critical developmental framework and draws on the notion of cultural models to explicate how resources are used. Three parental resources of mathematics achievement are scrutinised: (i) the teacher, (ii) exam test results and (iii) constructions of child
development. The interviews with twenty-two parents revealed that some resources were concrete, such as examination results. Other resources were symbolic, like the representation of child development, and were less likely to be shared with the school community. Either way, these resources were open to parental interpretations and influenced by parents’ own experiences and cultural representations