Abstract

Some time ago, Bryant remarked, ‘Piaget and Vygotsky set the scene for much of the work that has been done over the last twenty years or so on children’s mathematical understanding.’ Today, Piaget and Vygotsky’s conceptual and empirical frameworks still define principal contours of contemporary work on cognitive development. In introducing this section on culture, language, and number with chapters by Okamoto, Towse, Nunez and Marghetis, and Sturman, I situate the authors’ contributions in relation to Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s seminal writings and some contemporary strands of empirical and conceptual inquiry. I am particularly attentive to the way the authors extend ideas that were core to Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s writings.