The Challenging Relationship Between Fundamental Research and Action in Mathematics Education

Abstract

In this text, associated with my Felix Klein Medal awardee lecture at ICME-13, I develop a reflection on the relationships between fundamental research and action in mathematics education. This reflection is based on my experience as a teacher, teacher educator, and researcher and on what I learned from the responsibilities I had on the ICMI Executive Committee. Using as a filter the concept of didactical engineering, I address several issues: reproducibility, generalization, theoretical diversity, and values, that contribute to making these relationships especially challenging in mathematics education and point out promising evolutions in the field.