Networking of Theories for a Multifaceted Understanding on Lesson Study in the Italian Context

This paper explores the possibilities offered by combining three theoretical frameworks to observe some experiments in different contexts, in the field of mathematics teachers’ professional development, based on the Lesson Study methodology and framed into Cultural Transposition, through the Networking of Theories lens. The three researches share a broader goal: studying what might happen when a “foreign object”, such as Lesson Study, is introduced into teachers’ practices. The specific goal is to explore how dissimilar theoretical frameworks can highlight different aspects related to the cultural transposition of Lesson Study into the Italian context, and how this cultural transposition can improve, modify or strengthen teachers' practices. Does the confrontation with a foreign culture shed light on which teachers’ practices and beliefs are more stable, and which are more malleable and subject to change? Findings provide a positive answer to the applicability of LS in the Italian cultural and didactic context.