ICMI Renaissance: the emergence of new issues in mathematics education

Two facts mark the emerging of the new status of mathematics education as a scientific discipline: the inauguration in 1969 of the tradition of International Congresses on Mathematical Education (ICMEs), and the contemporary launch of journals related to mathematics education research. The early ICMEs acted as catalysts for new ideas that have their roots in important events that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. As a consequence new issues found their place in the international discussion on mathematics education and opened new lines of research and forms of action inside ICMI, so that we may talk about a genuine ICMI Renaissance. In our contribution we examine the background and circumstances that fostered and shaped the emergence of the new issues that have developed through ICMEs up to the present day.