‘I’m still making dots for them’: mathematics lecturers’ views on their mathematical modelling practices

Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, we analyse lecturers’ views on the aims and teaching practices of mathematical modelling (MM) education in Norway and England. We aim to expose the tensions that exist within the activity of teaching MM at university, such as those that exist between multiple, sometimes competing, aims for teaching MM, or between the lecturers’ professional identities and the structure of university degrees. Our conceptualisation of these tensions might help lecturers consider how to overcome obstacles in their own contexts.