ABSTRACT
The three American and three German contributors to this volume each explore the coordination of cognitive and sociological perspectives in mathematics education. Collectively, the contributions are diverse and yet have an overarching coherence. The diversity reflects differences both in the authors’ theoretical backgrounds and in their interests and concerns. Thus, the issues addressed cover the gamut from small-group interactions to students’ development of ways of languaging in the mathematics classroom. The coherence reflects the close collaboration of the authors, their use of the same set of video recordings and transcripts, and their compatible epistemological commitments. Each of the authors refers to the basic tenets of both constructivism and social interactionism. Thus, they draw on von Glasersfeld’s (1987) characterization of students as active creators of their ways of mathematical knowing, and on the interactionist view that learning involves the interactive constitution of mathematical meanings in a (classroom) culture. Further, the authors assume that this culture is brought forth jointly (by the teacher and students), and that the process of negotiating meanings mediates between cognition and culture (Bauersfeld, Krummheuer, & Voigt, 1988).
