School mathematical modelling: Developing mathematics or developing modelling?

International audienceIn this paper, I will examine mathematical modelling as a pedagogic activity. I will contrast this activity with mathematical modelling in other professional settings and with mathematics in a school and professional setting. Mathematical modelling is commonly drawn on in the literature as a resource for supporting the learning of mathematics in schools, often as a motivating or contextualising mechanism. I will argue, however, that the activity of modelling is mythologised in these instances, since the recognition rules for the practice of modelling per se are frequently not deployed. Instead, I will argue, illustrated by a school activity, that school mathematical modelling may be distinguished from its professional counterpart as a distinct pedagogic activity