Radford, L. (2016). Mathematics Education as a Matter of Labor. In M.A. Peters (ed.). Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Section: Mathematics education philosophy and theory. P. Valero and G. Knijnik, Editors. Singapore: Springer. DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_518-1 Mathematics Education as a Matter of Labor Luis Radford Université Laurentienne, Sudbury, ON, Canada Introduction During the twentieth century, mathematics educa- tion was predominantly conceptualized either as the diffusion of mathematical contents or as the facilitation of the students’ development of math- ematical cognitive structures. In the first case, the emphasis was generally put on the organization of the mathematics curriculum and the efficient man- agement of the learning environment. In the sec- ond case, the emphasis was often put on mental structures and the understanding of students’ mathematical conceptualizations. In the first case, the underpinning theoretical orientation was essentially epistemological. In the second case, the theoretical orientation was psychologi- cal. Although the aforementioned conceptualiza- tions of mathematics education have shown their merits, in the past few years, there has been an increasing awareness that to come to grips with the complexity of contemporary societal demands, mathematics education can no longer be fruitfully formulated either as an epistemolog- ical or as a psychological matter – not even as epistemological and psychological. Sociocultural theories developed in the fields of sociology and anthropology (from Émile Durk- heim to Pierre Bourdieu and beyond) have pro- vided new perspectives by which to consider mathematics education. In particular, sociocul- tural theories have provided mathematics educa- tors with new possibilities to conceptualize the students, the teachers, and the school and to better understand the political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions that shape mathematics as a scientific discipline and mathematics education as a social-political-pedagogical project. Sociocultural theories differ categorically from the individualist idealist approaches to the mind and the rationalist epistemologies that have informed mathematics education since the early twentieth century. The individualist approaches to the mind understand the production of meaning and ideas as a mere subjective endeavor. Ratio- nalist epistemologies understand it as an abstract, nonhistorical, a-cultural process. Sociocultural theories, by contrast, understand the production of human beings and the ideas and meanings that humans produce as embedded in the individuals’ cultures. The common denominator of sociocul- tural theories is the claim that human beings are consubstantial with the culture in which they live their lives. In other words, cultures are not merely a constant source of stimuli to which humans adapt. On the contrary, the way in which human beings think, take action, feel, imagine, hope, and dream is deeply entangled in the historically con- stituted forms of thinking, sensing, feeling, and