Language Diversity in Research on Language Diversity in Mathematics Education

Research on educational phenomena, which always occur in cultural and societal contexts, cannot escape the trappings of language. This applies even to research on the teaching and learning of mathematics, despite the relative similarity of the topics taught around the world and the practicality of communicating internationally in a few common languages. In this chapter, we propose a framework which allows us to identify some intriguing effects of the need for shared natural languages to function in the work of researchers. We use this framework to examine some cases of research on language diversity in mathematics education, including research from the present ICMI study. The framework is essentially based on the anthropological theory of didactics, used as a “meta-theory.”