2023 Volume 16 Pages 27-43
The presentation of TSG57 at ICME-14 outlined that mathematics education is a scientific field in which many theoretical cultures coexist, and that “this diversity can be regarded as richness but it also challenges research as well as communication and cooperation in the field”. It was added that “how the scientific community can cope with this diversity with scientific integrity remains an open question”. In this paper, we propose to contribute to the reflection on this challenging issue by considering research on technology-based teaching and learning. First, we present a brief overview of the theoretical landscape in this area of research, highlighting its diversity. We then introduce two conceptual tools that have proven their effectiveness in addressing issues of theoretical diversity: the scale of networking strategies and the concept of research praxeology, before focusing on two case studies. These regard the instrumental approach and the documentational approach to didactics, the emergence and development of which illustrate well the global dynamic of the field towards increasing theoretical diversity, the questions raised by this dynamic and the insightful efforts made to deal with it.
