Review: Complexity and Insight

Abstract

Members of the English-speaking mathematics education research community have long been awaiting the day when they could become better acquainted with Guy Brousseau's Theory of Didactical Situations. Brousseau, who is a professor of didactique des mathématiques at the Institut de Formation des Maîtres d'Aquitaine of the University of Bordeaux in France, is one of mathematics education research's pioneers. From the early 1960s (when he gave birth to an ambitious project aimed at scientifically determining the best way of teaching mathematics to elementary school children) to the present (when he continues to work with pupils and teachers from the preschool to university levels and with research collaborators both at home and abroad), his impact has been considerable. Even though Brousseau began developing key concepts of his Theory as long as 30 years ago, direct access to his writings and those of his colleagues and students has been possible only for those who could read the French language. For several decades, non–francophone researchers have been wanting to get to the original sources that introduced concepts such as didactical contract, adidactical situation, institutionalization, and so on–concepts that have been referred to and interpreted in countless international research texts. In response to this need, the editors of this volume have selected from among Brousseau's papers those written between 1970 and 1990 that best exemplify the components of the Theory. But they have not only translated these papers, they have also edited, annotated, and organized them so as to provide a coherent and comprehensive presentation of the Theory of Didactical Situations.