The 2010 Banff workshop on teachers as stakeholders in mathematics education research

The Banff International Research Station (BIRS) for mathematical innovation and discovery held a 5-day workshop entitled "Teachers as Stakeholders of Mathematics Education Research" from December 5-10, 2010. This workshop coorganized by Guenter Toerner (University of Duisburg-Essen), Bharath Sriraman (University of Montana), Klaus Hoechsman (Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences, UBC-Canada), and Sharon Friesen (University of Calgary), followed up a successful workshop organized in Oberwolfach, Germany in 2007, and brought together 25 participants from all over the world. Participants included key members of the American Mathematical Society, the German Mathematical Society and the Canadian Mathematical Society, in addition to key educational policy makers from Germany, Austria and Australia. One of the goals of the workshop was to unify approaches to mathematics content presented in textbooks aimed at teacher education, in addition to discussing sustainable models of longitudinal professional development that have been successfully implemented in Australia, Europe, Israel and North America. In this special issue of The Mathematics Enthusiast, the myriad approaches to mathematics teacher professional development are presented and discussed.