This theoretical and methodological paper discusses the emerging theoretical framing and methodological considerations in our efforts to develop a theoretical approach supporting instructional design for teaching and learning statistics and mathematical modelling. From an instructional design point of view aligned with the goals in governing curricula documents and real classroom constraints, we argue for the integration of the models and modelling perspective on teaching and learning mathematics with a data-modelling approach to facilitate students’ learning statistics and mathematical modelling. An application of the framework is given and future research discussed.