Exploring Deaf Aesthetics as Spatial-Geometric Thinking, Acting, and Feeling: A Case Study

Spatial skills, while vital to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) fields, are fundamental to understanding all mathematics. Yet the absence of spatial development in elementary curricula, particularly geometry, where such skills can be deeply explored, is compounded by a lack of theoretical and empirical research, especially in deaf education, where little research addresses learners’ spatial-geometric understandings and the ways their bodies contribute to developing such understandings. We first review relevant literature to interrelate mathematics, spatial activity, and embodied cognition with aesthetics for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) in deaf education. We then present a case study in which we observed and assessed Evan, a deaf student, as he worked on three geometry tasks. This video-based research utilises the Pirie–Kieren Theory/Model to further consider the aesthetic, spatially dynamic, and embodied ways that Evan’s geometric understandings emerged and evolved into more formal mathematical activity. Finally, we discuss the ways the study findings focused on spatial-geometric development support future STEAM education research and classroom mathematics towards growth-oriented learning for deaf students.