This paper analyses the history of the use of the term "broker" in education, and highlights the different definitions of this word in France, in particular by examining what it owes to the anglo-saxon concept of knowledge brokering. It proposes to identify three skills specific to the role of the broker: knowing how to identify research work, knowing how to read the complexity of an educational situation, and knowing how to discern research that can be mobilized to respond to the holistic nature of an educational situation. Finally, it raises the question of the conception of relevant structures for developing a culture of mediation, learning from those that exist outside France.