Book review: Pausing to relate and participate

Abstract

There was a time, not so long ago, when the selection of a textbook for use in graduatelevel courses in mathematics curriculum presented me with many challenges indeed. Ivalue research-based texts comprised of multiple authors, each embracing differentmethodological and/or theoretical lenses through which to view mathematics educationand research in/on mathematics education. What I found more often in my searches,however, were books that focused narrowly on (mostly) cognitive and/or psychologicalperspectives on learning, while working hard to de-emphasize theory and associatedacademic language. The significant impact of such books on the field of mathematicseducation is not in question; their narrowness of focus, however, tends to limitopportunities for resonance and relationship on the part of the students in my courses(who are generally full-time school teachers from diverse backgrounds and interests,studying part-time in graduate school). Thankfully, those days of limited choice havepassed. In recent years, books that challenge monolithic, atheoretical, and empiricistviews of mathematics teaching, learning, and research have been published in notablenumbers (see, for example, Allen & Johnston-Wilder, 2004;Brown,2008; de Freitas N Valero & Zevenbergen,2004; Walshaw, 2004, 2010). This book edited byBlack, Mendick, and Solomon is another such choice; it is, in fact, a treasure in how itschapters engage the reader in multiple methodological and theoretical conversations in/on mathematical relationships, identities, and participations by key researchers in thefield.