RUME 28
2026
Alexandria, Virginia
Utilizing Discourse Analysis to Explore the Merits of Nonverbal Communication in Higher Education Mathematics Classrooms
Page: 294
Discursive interactions have been of great interest to researchers studying students' sense of belonging in the classroom. The study of discourse helps us understand positions of authority and agency, as well as creating a common language to describe expected social roles in student-teacher and student-student interactions (storylines). Positioning theory provides the groundwork for understanding how our beliefs about social roles influence how we express ourselves. In each of these areas, verbal communication is typically studied directly, with nonverbal communication used as confirmatory or add-on illustrations. This study centers nonverbal communication, using empirical data from an observation of a higher education mathematics classroom over two class sessions. We seek to identify how the instructor’s use of classroom space and body movement demonstrates the assignment and shifting of power structures, as well as the enactment of storylines.