Challenging the mathematician’s ‘ultimate substantiator’ role in a low lecture innovation

In this paper we draw on our experiences as member of the International Advisory Board and principal investigator of a research project on undergraduate mathematics teaching and learning to comment on the study of university mathematics as a process of enculturation into new mathematical practices and new ways of constructing and conveying mathematical meaning. We see this enculturation as the adaptation of different ways to act and communicate mathematically. We take a discursive perspective and we treat the changes to the mathematical and pedagogical perspectives of those who act – students and lecturers – as discursive shifts (Sfard, 2008). Our particular focus is on the shifts concerning the ‘ultimate substantiator’ role typically attributed to the lecturer.