Language Diversity and Mathematics Education
~ Making Sense of Indian Reality in the Light of International Research
LaDiMe - 2025
November 25-28, 2025
Marta Civil, The University of Arizona, USA
Title: A Reflection on Language Diversity and Participation in Mathematics Education
Abstract: In this talk I use vignettes from several research projects to offer some thoughts on issues related to the presence of more than one language in the mathematics classroom. Given the geographic location of my research context, as well as its socio-political history, the communities in which I work are largely bilingual (English-Spanish). Grounded on a language as resource orientation, I provide examples of rich mathematical discussions when students use their home language. I also illustrate the implications on parents’ and students’ participation in mathematics education spaces in the presence of restrictive language policies and the differences in valorization of home and school knowledge.
Anthony A Essien, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Title: Working with Multiple Languages in Teacher Education: Lessons from Mother tongue-based Bilingual Education Research in South Africa
Abstract: South Africa has 12 official languages and until 2024, it was a policy requirement for students in the Foundation Phase (up to Grade 3) to receive instruction in the home language and to switch to English from Grade 4. From 2025, South Africa introduced mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE) where students continue to receive instructions in their home language beyond Grade 4 with an incremental use of English. Our research in the Numeracy Chair, in response to the MTBBE imperative has been to support teachers in its implementation. We do this through a merger framework that brings together the translanguaging framework and the language responsive mathematics teaching framework. In my talk, I discuss this framework drawing on data from our teacher professional development sessions and from classroom observations in Grade 4 and in so doing, operationalise what it means to use more than one language for teacher education, and for higher education more generally.
Nuria Planas, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Title: Form and Meaning in the Bilingual Mathematics Classroom
Abstract: Mapping form to meaning and meaning to form across languages is a double-sided central issue in the bilingual mathematics classroom, both for learners and teachers. Drawing on sociocultural language-based theories of learning, mathematics teaching and learning in the bilingual classroom can be represented in terms of the inseparable mapping between form and meaning. In this talk, I will argue that this mapping needs to be understood and addressed explicitly even for languages in which word form can be similar, such as Catalan and Spanish. Examples will come from lesson data over two decades of research projects.
Susanne Prediger, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Title: Promoting Mathematics Teachers’ Professional Learning for Language-responsive Mathematics Teaching
Abstract: What do mathematics teachers need to learn for working with students’ diverse languages in ways that enhance students’ conceptual understanding in mathematics, and how can this professional learning be promoted?
The talk summarizes various research findings (from classroom research and professional development research) that suggest major professional learning goals and approaches. Research findings of the Dortmund MuM research group underpin that teachers’ main focus should be on discourse practices of explaining meanings, describing mathematical structures and arguing, rather than reporting procedures, and on establishing those meaning-related phrases needed to explicitly articulate mathematical structures informally, no matter in which of the official languages.
Rama Kant Agnihotri, Delhi University (Retired)
Title: Multilinguality and Mathematics
Though symbolic systems of Language and Mathematics are crucially different, all human societies share them. The innate capacity for Language flowers early and liberates us from the bondage of the perceptual located in time and space and we can talk about things that are not there in constantly changing contexts, creating and using new resources. All systems of knowledge including Mathematics then must inevitably be negotiated through Language. Mathematics creates a world of its own symbols and once defined, their meanings are supposed to be context-free. Language is generally conceptualised as ‘a language’ seen as a pairing of a lexicon and a syntax maintaining the discreteness of every language. I argue that Language must be seen as Multilinguality which is constitutive of being human; it is defined in the triangular space of Universal Grammar, linguistic fluidity, and social justice, with a respect for the linguistic potential of learners and the linguistic diversity available in society and schools. Multilinguality and Mathematics share different kinds of Universal Grammar but Mathematics cannot afford fluidity and as a system of knowledge can afford to ignore issues of social justice; one can engage in it purely as an exercise in joy so long one honours the definitions of the objects and processes that inhabit the universe of Mathematics. It is not difficult to prove that every 5- year-old is a linguistic genius; it is difficult to say that in the case of Mathematics. In fact, greater the exposure to Mathematics in our schools, greater is the fear it generates such that most students wait for Grade X when they can abandon the subject. Using Multilinguality which subsumes the languages learners bring to the classroom may help us address this critical pedagogical challenge. Multilinguality and Mathematics are two symbolic systems that seem necessary foundations for all other systems of knowledge. This paper explores the relationship between language and mathematics proficiency and some aspects of the language used in Mathematics.
Tamsin Jillian Meaney, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Title: Preservice Teachers Learning to be Advocates for Multilingual Classrooms in Mathematics Teacher Education
Abstract: Recent calls for equity in mathematics education demand a broadening of the necessary content for teacher education beyond just content and pedagogy. In this presentation, I explore the need to consider how to support preservice teachers to become advocates with and for their students, around issues to do with language diversity. This exploration includes both a theoretical and practical perspective, using empirical examples from our teacher education courses for preservice teachers of Grades 1-7 in Norway. I discuss aspects of the role that may be challenging to incorporate into mathematics teacher education, such as in-class advocacy being easier to recognise, but not easy for preservice teachers to implement, while out-of-class advocacy could be more difficult for preservice teachers to recognise and for teacher educators to raise. It seems that if advocacy is to be integrated into mathematics teacher education, then there is a need to be aware of the impact of preservice teachers holding contradictory language ideologies and of teacher educators being uncertain how to raise such topics. The results provide insights into how adding the advocacy role to mathematics teacher education requires ongoing work in shifting and altering relations.
R Ramanujam, Azim Premji University, India
Title: Adler’s Dilemmas, Revisited
Abstract: In a profoundly insightful analysis in 2001 of teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms, Jill Adler identified and articulated certain dilemmas of the teacher: the dilemma of code switching, the dilemma of mediation and the dilemma of language transparency. In Indian mathematics classrooms, where children and teachers navigate many layers of home language, street language, academic language and disciplinary language, this analysis is pertinent and gains further depth. In a society deeply riven by class and caste, language is at the same time a socio-intellectual resource and an exclusionary force. Viewed thus, the language of mathematics, viewed as objective and universal, exacerbates this tension, socially charging the already intellectually challenging movement from the informal to the formal with exclusionary potential. Further dilemmas emerge, relating to the lack of a pedagogically acknowledged spoken idiom for the expression of mathematical thinking, and the hegemony of the written form in mathematics. Tamil, with its entirely distinct phonetic, syntactic and idiomatic structure in the spoken and written form, sharpens these dilemmas.
In this discussion, we focus on students’ mathematical talk in a South Indian classroom and its linguistic diversity, highlighting the dilemmas of the teacher, in the spirit of Adler.
Aldo Ivan Parra
Title: Between Epistemic Desires and Practical Constraints: Realities of Mathematics Classrooms in Colombia
Abstract: Colombia has recently enacted a groundbreaking national law on indigenous education, the result of forty years of debate surrounding a differentiated schooling approach designed to safeguard and revitalise cultural and linguistic heritage. The law empowers local indigenous communities to determine their own curricula, assessment methods, resources, learning environments, and teachers, thereby creating space for a culturally grounded education that makes visible alternative conceptions of mathematics while respecting indigenous languages and linguistic rights. However, Teachers’ and parents’ attitudes and beliefs regarding mathematics pose substantial limitations to the effective implementation of the law. Recent data will be presented to illustrate these tensions.
Review Panel 1: Language in Mathematics Textbooks
Panel Lead: Prof. Rakhi Banerjee
Fellow Panellists: Prof. Jeenat Rehaman, Mr Kumar Gandharv
Review Panel 2: Mathematics Teacher Education and Language Diversity
Panel Lead: Prof. Ruchi Kumar
Fellow Panellists: Ms Anshul Jain, Ms Kriti Pal, Ms Tejaswini Bhaskar
Review Panel 3: Researching the Language Question in Mathematics Education
Panel Lead: Prof. K Subramanian
Fellow Panellists: Dr Jayasree S, Dr Arul Ganesh
Review Panel 4: Sociopolitical Factors, Language and Mathematics Education
Panel Lead: Prof. Farida Abdulla Khan
Fellow Panellists: Mr Ishan Santra, Mr Bhargav Kale
Panel 5: Language, Mathematics and Higher Education
Panel Lead: Prof. Amber Habib
Fellow Panellists: Prof. Shantha Bhushan, Prof. Shanta Laishram,
Prof. Geetha Venkataraman