Book excerpt: Over the years a number of "must read" articles and book chapters have appeared—work that has formed the foundational stepping stones of mathematics education research for the 21st century. Twelve such seminal articles have been reproduced in this book. Each is accompanied by two independent appraisals of the longer term impact of the work within and beyond the mathematics education research community. Collectively these writings cover a wide range of topics and provide a broad overview of the outstanding contributions of Australasian mathematics education research prior to 2000.