We explore how the concept of abstraction, which is central to mathematical activity, can lead to detachment or attachment to land, nature, culture, language, and heritage in Indigenous contexts. We wonder if students detach themselves from mathematics because they feel mathematics asking them to detach themselves from people and places to whom…

In this article, we address a call by Thompson and Carlson to directly contribute to defining the variation of students' reasoning about varying quantities. We show that students as young as in sixth grade can engage in complex forms of reasoning about multiple quantities in contexts that involve exploring science phenomena using interactive…

Backward transfer refers to the influence on prior knowledge of the acquisition and generalisation of new knowledge. Studies of backward transfer of mathematical knowledge have focused on content that is closely related in time and in curricular sequencing. Employing the notion of thickening understanding, we describe instances of transfer that…

Mathematics education in post-colonial Malta is experienced bilingually by teachers and students. I was recently involved in the publication of a bilingual (English / Maltese) glossary of mathematics terms relevant to early childhood and elementary classes. Work on the glossary involved compiling already existing Maltese mathematics terms and also…

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…

In this paper, we provide an elaboration of the notion of mathematical structure -- a term agreed upon as valuable but difficult to define. We pull apart the terminology surrounding the notion of structure in mathematics: relationship, generalising/generalisation and properties, and offer an architecture of structure that distinguishes and…

Within a study of student reasoning in abstract algebra, we encountered the claim "division and multiplication are the same operation." What might prompt a student to make this claim? What kind of influence might believing it have on their mathematical development? We explored the philosophical roots of "sameness" claims to…

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…

Multiplication can be presented to students through different models, each one with its pros and cons. In this contribution we focus on the repeated sum and the array model to investigate the relations between the two models and those between them and multiplication properties. Formal counterparts are presented. Taking both a mathematical and…

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,…

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…

We present a synthesis of the Onto-semiotic Approach (OSA) theoretical system to mathematical knowledge and instruction, while highlighting the problems, principles and research methods that are addressed in this approach and considering the didactics of mathematics as a scientific and technological discipline. We suggest that Didactics should…

The literature concerning students' understanding of the equal sign has focused narrowly within the context of formal mathematics. Researchers have put forth a hierarchy of conceptions of the equal sign with only the top level regarded as correct. Meanwhile, we find that the equal sign is used widely and in a variety of ways in advertising and…

Critical to constructing and interpreting graphs is an individual's understanding of the underlying coordinate systems, yet coordinate systems are often overlooked or taken-for-granted in both mathematics education research and curricula. In this paper, we foreground coordinate systems and present a distinction between two uses of coordinate…

This story is a playful retelling of ideas related to infinity. Presented as a historical fiction, the story reflects the thinking of research participants who addressed the ping pong ball conundrum, and where indicated, the individuals who contributed to modern formal understandings of infinity. This story offers a way of engaging with questions,…