Commentary on Mathematical Tasks and the Student: Coherence and Connectedness of Mathematics, Cycles of Task Design, and Context of Implementation

In this commentary, I draw exclusively on the ten papers in this issue of "ZDM" focused on "Mathematical Tasks and the Student." These papers represent various cultural and theoretical stances and when reading them I was looking for common themes across some or all the papers. Based on my readings, I argue that (a) each task has the potential to promote domain-specific as well as domain-transcendent goals potentially communicating a more coherent and connected picture of mathematics, (b) tasks cannot be considered independently from their enactment and prior enactments should inform future implementations, and (c) the context of the implementation of a task (i.e., the teacher, classroom norms, and student agency) is essential and needs to be considered in the design phase.