This paper problematizes the metaphors of unpacking, deconstructing, and decompressing mathematics that are prevalent in discourses about mathematics teacher knowledge. It is argued that the logic of these metaphors is based on the reversibility of packing, constructing, and compressing mathematics and seems to suggest the view that knowledge is…

What does it mean to have mathematical authority? How does it differ from pedagogical authority? We drew upon Goffman's (1981) ideas of author and animator to exemplify modes of mathematical authority that extend beyond the authorship of ideas. Through a series of excerpts from lessons in middle-grades mathematics classrooms, this paper emphasizes…

With the proliferation of video-based professional development (PD) courses for mathematics teachers, understanding the role of the facilitators of these courses has become an emerging field of theoretical and empirical study. The purpose of this article is to address some of the challenges and opportunities that facilitation of discussions…

In this paper, we propose a potential interactional explanation of tertiary-to-secondary (dis)continuity: that of authority relations. Using secondary mathematics teachers' proof validations across two contexts, we suggest that secondary teachers' conceptions of authority shape their capacity to reconcile their positions as former mathematics…

Students who are labelled as low attaining in mathematics are often seen as a homogeneous group and as such can be assigned learning attributes by others that observe their identity work in the classroom. Rachel Helme argues that by giving attention to an otherwise marginalised voice, it may be possible to challenge the discourse of deficiency,…

Results in Mathematics Education, from different theoretical perspectives, highlight students' difficulties with graphs, both in interpreting given ones and in producing their own graphs. In this paper, we take an affective lens to understand both a student's relationship with mathematical graphs and a teacher's role when a task with a graph is…

In this paper, we discuss the relationship between rhetoric and mathematics, focusing on mathematical proofs. We offer a theoretical framework based on Perelman's New Rhetoric for analyzing the teaching of proof, taking into account rhetorical aspects. We illustrate the practicality and applicability of the proposed framework and methodology by…

Mathematical argumentation, justification, and proof are practices at the heart of mathematics. Yet mathematics teachers generally operate without clear definitions of these practices making it difficult to communicate expectations, decide what to accept or expect from students at different grade levels, and distinguish these activities from…

Literature has already shown that gestures play a relevant role in classroom interactions between students and teacher. We integrate the perspective of Theory of Semiotic Mediation with the notion of Semiotic Bundle to illustrate how gestures can be used as "pivot signs" in semiotic chains. This means that gestures can be performed by…

This paper seeks to integrate a scholarship of "ritual" with a scholarship of "improvisation" and relate the intersection thereof with mathematics teaching and learning and with mathematics education research. Drawing on their experiences as classroom teachers, as practicing improvisers, and as current education researchers,…

L.V. Zankov (1901-1977), a student and colleague of Vygotsky, developed a system of developmental education for elementary education through 20 years of extensive research. Since 2009, a number of Norwegian schools have been using textbooks in mathematics based on Zankov's system. In this article, we present and discuss the experiences of some…

We describe how a group of secondary mathematics teachers posed and solved a real-world problem. The problem was posed by teachers on a sandbar off the coast of an island in the Bahamas, where panoramic views of water meeting sky spurred the teachers to wonder how far away they could see. We analyze how the teachers translated the natural…

This comment on Gascón & Nicolás (2017) explores relationships between mathematics education research and conceptualizations of time. Using Fabian's critique of temporal perspectives in anthropological research (1983) and Lemke's framework of timescales (2000), we consider ways in which implicit attitudes towards time in research can position…

Tensions are an integral part of mathematics teachers' practice and have been recognised as playing a pivotal role in guiding teachers' choices, and in driving teacher change. Professional development particularly elicits dilemmas. Tensions appear to be a crucial aspect of mathematics teacher education and therefore a deeper understanding of…

This paper focuses on the design of tasks that situate teachers in the work of mathematics teaching. We examine a simple, yet fundamental feature of pedagogical content knowledge tasks: the extent to which pedagogical warrants are necessitated by the pedagogical context. We argue that this feature has implications for the design of tasks, as well…