Contradictions and shifts in teaching with a new curriculum: The role of mathematics

International audienceIn the framework of Activity Theory (AT), contradictions are sources of change and development. Borrowing concepts from AT, we attempt an interpretation of identified contradictions in a collaborative context where teachers plan and evaluate their teaching in the process of enacting a new curriculum. We examine the connection between contradictions and shifts in teaching activity, with a special focus on the mathematical character of these contradictions. We claim that dialectical oppositions lying in the background of these contradictions promote teachers to broaden their teaching activity by embedding into it new mathematical and pedagogical possibilities