Facilitating emergent bilingual students' participation in mathematics discourse and discourse communities through positioning

Kanushri Wadhwa; Kanushri Wadhwa

doi:10.3934/steme.2025015

STEM Education

2025, Volume 5, Issue 2: 291-309. doi: 10.3934/steme.2025015

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Research note

Facilitating emergent bilingual students' participation in mathematics discourse and discourse communities through positioning

Kanushri Wadhwa ^,

Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Miami, 5202 University Drive #312, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA

Academic Editor: Kwesi Yaro

Received: 04 September 2024 Revised: 20 February 2025 Accepted: 21 February 2025 Published: 14 March 2025

Assessment data, studies of opportunity-to-learn, and the extant beliefs of some U.S. teachers about the roles and abilities of emergent bilingual students make it necessary to consider how to improve mathematics instruction. This systematic, qualitative review of 33 studies in K-12 settings used a definition of discourse informed by systemic functional linguistics and positioning theory to answer the following question: How, if at all, does the literature suggest teachers encourage emergent bilingual students' participation in mathematics discourse and discourse communities through reflexive and interactive positioning? A coding process uncovered themes from the articles, all identified through methodical elimination and published in the last 25 years. Findings suggest that teachers can position students to partake in mathematics discourse by engaging in practices that reflect these students' abilities and strategies and show the value of their current communicative practices and out-of-school contexts.
- mathematics discourse,
- discourse community,
- emergent bilingual,
- positioning theory,
- revoicing,
- nonlinguistic resources
Citation: Kanushri Wadhwa. Facilitating emergent bilingual students' participation in mathematics discourse and discourse communities through positioning[J]. STEM Education, 2025, 5(2): 291-309. doi: 10.3934/steme.2025015

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Abstract

Assessment data, studies of opportunity-to-learn, and the extant beliefs of some U.S. teachers about the roles and abilities of emergent bilingual students make it necessary to consider how to improve mathematics instruction. This systematic, qualitative review of 33 studies in K-12 settings used a definition of discourse informed by systemic functional linguistics and positioning theory to answer the following question: How, if at all, does the literature suggest teachers encourage emergent bilingual students' participation in mathematics discourse and discourse communities through reflexive and interactive positioning? A coding process uncovered themes from the articles, all identified through methodical elimination and published in the last 25 years. Findings suggest that teachers can position students to partake in mathematics discourse by engaging in practices that reflect these students' abilities and strategies and show the value of their current communicative practices and out-of-school contexts.

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Author's biography Dr. Kanushri Wadhwa is a mathematics teacher in the New York City Department of Education. Her research interests include equity in mathematics classrooms and teachers' experiences in bridging research and practice

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