Curriculum resources and textbooks in mathematics education

Typically, curriculum resources including textbooks are seen to reside at the interface between policy and practice (e.g., Valverde et al. 2002), as they translate policy (the intended curriculum) into practice (the enacted curriculum). More recently mathematics teachers increasingly rely on digital resources to prepare their lessons and to design their mathematics curriculum, and students use such resources in class and to complement their courses. These materials are said to become key tools for teachers; as in many countries (e.g., France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States), teachers are increasingly encouraged to (re) design the curriculum in planning their instruction. In the next section we define curriculum resources; in particular we distinguish digital curriculum resources from educational technology. In the subsequent section, we discuss the design and “use” of mathematics curriculum resources by teachers (and students). In the last section, we develop.