Understanding and Growing Together: Mathematics Teachers’ Reciprocal Learning Between China and Canada

Purpose This study aims to build a sustainable reciprocal learning community between China and Canada in mathematics education, exploring how teacher learning changes, and identifying factors influencing their professional growth. Design/Approach/Methods This study uses qualitative study methods, including interviews, observations, and document analysis. Four participants are involved in this 7-year project. Findings Teacher noticing emerges across three reciprocal learning phases. Mathematics teachers experience three transformation stages in cross-cultural reciprocal learning: from knowing to criticizing, from understanding to learning, and from collaborating to cocreating. Within these three stages, the study identifies specific advantages in mathematics education, highlighting its distinct cultural features within the context of cross-cultural reciprocal learning. The understanding of context (which is deemed the deep structure of culture) is important to have success in reciprocal learning between different countries. Originality/Value This study contributes originality through a narrative-based practical exploration of mathematics teachers’ cross-cultural reciprocal learning, offering new practical perspectives for cross-cultural comparative education. The constructed mathematics teachers’ cross-cultural reciprocal learning transformation model provides an explanatory and intervention framework for advancing reciprocal learning. Practically, it informs global educational practices by emphasizing culture understanding and respects, while promoting high-quality cross-cultural collaboration, global-minded education, and sustainable development through empirical reflection.