Positioning Latinx Learners to Thrive in Mathematics: Translanguaging and Dialogic Discourse

Latinx Students And Mathematics

Latinx students are one of the fastest growing school age populations in the U.S. (Irwin et al., 2022). Yet, Moll (2001) posits that classroom practices have continued to create a distance between Latinx students’ language, cultural knowledge, and what they know academically. These systems persist in marginalizing – and thus not privileging – linguistic, social, and cultural capital, which creates dehumanizing schooling experiences (Langer-Osuna, Moschkovich, Norén, Powell & Vazquez, 2016). Moreover, guiding texts like Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All (NCTM, 2014) assert that all students must have access and opportunity to study mathematics. As such, mathematics classrooms have been encouraged to move from isolated seatwork to more student-centered activities that require students and teachers to engage in more substantive mathematical discussions and collective practice (Bass & Ball, 2015; Khisty & Chval, 2002; Vomvoridi-Ivanović, 2012). However, there is a concern that mathematics reforms fundamentally neglect the needs of Latinx students unless the cultural and linguistic dimensions of learning mathematics through multiple languages are re-examined in light of the evolving demands of the mathematics classroom with its increased emphasis on communication and collaboration (Moschkovich, 2000, 2012). While this is a generalized perspective of classrooms with Latinx students, it nonetheless raises questions about marginalization and undervalues Latinx students’ learning resources in mathematics.