Teachers’ professional development: a cultural matter. How to describe cultural contexts?

Teachers’ professional development in collaborative contexts is a growing trend in Mathematics Education research. Particularly, Japanese Lesson Study has seen a great focus on its dissemination around the world. Research shows that Japanese culture is one of the main reasons that makes Lesson Study effective: understanding Lesson Study means understanding the cultural context in which it originated. We attempt to describe the Japanese and the Italian cultural contexts. Since there exists no consensus on what is essential to analyse in order to understand a cultural context, we present two approaches to this description, and consider some advantages and shortcomings. We hope to sprout discussion on the possibility to create guidelines for describing cultural contexts, shared by the community of researchers in Mathematics Education: awareness of beliefs, identity and practice is a sensitive element for successful mathematics teacher professional development.