Diversity in curriculum committees: challenges and opportunities for cross-community collaboration

Reform committees typically comprise members from diverse communities of practice. Research has shown that achieving productive cross-community collaboration in mathematics education is far from straightforward. The work of reform committees is typically confidential, yet circumstantial evidence suggests that cross-community interactions are less productive than they could be. Due to the crucial influence of such committees on mathematics education at the national level, we suggest that cross-community interactions in reform committees should be an explicit topic of research. We propose boundary-crossing as a framework, and apply it to analyze cases of collaboration, including a setting that simulates the work of committees-a mathematics education forum where mathematicians, educational researchers and teachers (including past and present members of reform committees) meet to discuss issues of common interest. We identify the crucial role played by brokers in facilitating cross-boundary learning, and propose that suitable committee members should be designated as brokers. We call on the community to intentionally study and teach the role of broker in this context.