Introduction to Section II: Coming Apart at Every Nail: Where to Now for the Theory-Practice Dream?

To validate mathematics education research, theoretical frameworks are drawn from other social science disciplines, including sociology and psychology, which can result in a disconnect between theory and practice. In this chapter, I discuss two key challenges that drive this disconnect, namely: (a) the lack of exchange between theory developers, other researchers, and practitioners (i.e., teachers); and (b) the hesitancy in our field to replicate studies across classrooms and contexts. This chapter is framed around issues discussed in more depth in the subsequent chapters in this section, which focus on the role of theory in research and practice, using a somewhat provocative approach to shed light on some of the contentious issues that may be inhibiting progress in the field of mathematics education research. This chapter ends with an example of how theory and theory-driven development of curricula can lead to large-scale adaption of learning programs.