#480: Beyond Symbols: Highlighting Multilingual Learners’ Mathematical Practices in Integrated STEM Space

This study investigates how multilingual middle school students engaged in mathematical practice during a collaborative engineering design challenge in an integrated STEAM summer program. While mathematics in school contexts is often reduced to symbolic procedures, our analysis reveals that students engaged in rich mathematical practices through spatial reasoning, inference-in-action, generalization, and collaborative problem-solving. Grounded in sociocultural and embodied theories of learning, the study demonstrates how mathematics emerged as a dynamic, bodily, and socially mediated practice embedded in material interaction. Recognizing these practices expands conventional definitions of mathematics, foregrounds the contributions of students from nondominant communities, and underscores the importance of centering mathematics as a vibrant component of STEM education.