ABSTRACT
The gap between the worlds of academic research and school practice has been treated from a diversity of theories and cultures of mathematical pedagogy (Adler, 2005; García, Sánchez, Escudero, & Llinares, 2006; Jaworski, 1998; Krainer & Zehetmeier, 2013; Lubienski, 2008). In a context in which the study of barriers between research and practice in mathematics teacher education is a major topic, the argument by Kieran, Krainer and Shaughnessy (2013) for more research on how to interact in ways that lead to positive synergies is very relevant:
The challenge now for all of us in the international mathematics education community is to consider how further to promote and systematize collaborative research work among teachers, with or without university researchers […] A case can be made that all countries should consider implementing a systematic integration of linked research and practice.
(p. 388) In this fourth part of this book, the contributions by other authors to the volume are viewed as belonging to the shared adventure of moving mathematics teacher education forward. The discussion of the shared adventure by different expeditions with different travellers, and of the learning attained, brings up a variety of teacher education processes and positive synergies. From my knowledge of the work on these expeditions, I believe that their travellers have important things to say about mathematics teacher education. First, a focus on gaps and deficiencies is replaced with a more refined language with a focus on challenges and performance. In this way, instead of sending an incomplete message on what has not been achieved in the work with teachers, a number of positive synergies achieved are outlined. Some of these synergies are addressed by Adler and Ronda in Chapter 8, who present a delicate elaboration of the many learning possibilities and outcomes involved in their teacher development activity.