Research and Intervention Programs in Mathematics Education: A Gendered Issue

This paper introduces a schema for classifying research in mathematics education that deepens and extends the Romberg/Bourne model. It employs dual hierarchical systems, one relating to the research task and the other to the research technique. The six task categories—descriptive, interpretive, prescriptive, analytic, synthetic, and theoretic—are defined with respect to breadth, depth, and scope of a study. The six technique categories—reflective, referential, evidential, clinical, empirical, and experimental—are defined in terms of utilization of resources and design intentions of the investigator. The pairing of task categories with technique categories permits the creation of a classification matrix for research in mathematics education. By examining the location of studies within this task‐technique matrix, both producers and consumers of research in mathematics education can discern historical trends influencing current and future investigations.

This book, Approaches to Qualitative Research in Mathematics Education: Examples of Methodology and Methods, edited by Angelika Bikner-Ahsbahs, Christine Knipping, and Norma Presmeg, is a timely and valuable addition to the research literature in mathematics education. Across 18 chapters written by more than 30 prominent researchers, the book offers a range of insight and detail that goes beyond what is normally possible within individual articles in mathematics education research journals. The book complements other efforts to capture the many advances in the mathematics education research field over recent years. By capturing the important distinction between ‘method’ (the ‘how’) and ‘methodology’ (the ‘why’) through facilitating the various authors in probing the underlying assumptions of their approaches, the book is to be strongly recommended. While it is not a straightforward read, the various sections of the book offer unmatched insight into the conduct of important research in mathematics education.

In this report we present the results of an international research study on the training of researchers in mathematics education. the study was carried out by some members of the international study group on theory of mathematics education. the research involved developing a questionnaire which was mailed to numerous institutions all over the world and the analysis of the answers which were received. the main objective of the study was to collect international data about the training of researchers in mathematics education and to establish an information network about graduate programs in the field. a total of about 150 questionnaires were sent out and 78 answers received. fifteen of these answers came from universities that wish to participate in the network although they do not have a program at present.

Mathematics has maintained an enduring image as a field of knowledge lending its resources to many intellectual pursuits and utilitarian enterprises. School mathematics, however, has increasingly learned to respond to a commonly conceived purpose of supplying the world’s workforce with the resources needed to support economic wellbeing. The emergent regulation in support of this response has in some instances tempered more humanistic or idealistic conceptions of why we want to study mathematics. What had been introduced to measure school mathematics now defines and polices its boundaries. It has also privileged Western concerns in setting internationalized agenda. Mathematics, mathematics education and mathematics education research, this chapter suggests, are each conceptualized according to their location, reflecting and shaping each other, yet with each being governed by slightly different priorities. It is argued that schooling is increasingly shaped and judged by its perceived capacity to deliver success in terms of international competitiveness linked to economic agenda. This results in school mathematics being shaped to meet assessment requirements. The chapter shows how research increasingly finds its terms of reference set according to measuring delivery in these terms. It also shows how researchers become complicit in promoting particular conceptions of teaching and in constructing the field as an ideological battleground. Such complicity, it is suggested, combined with the relative insularity of the field, prevents us from occupying other worlds that might define us and serve us in different ways. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the prospects of research in mathematics education and the extent to which this activity is enabled or restricted by existing institutional contexts in re-shaping its ambitions to engage with the diversity of future needs.

Our task in preparing this article on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Journal for Research in Marhematics Education (JRME) was to look ahead to the future of research in the field and to identify and discuss issues that might be important for the next decade or two in the life of the journal. Rather than merely offering our own opinions and speculations. we decided to interview a number of other researchers, some from the United States and some from other countries, to sample their views regarding the current state of research in mathematics education, the issues that may affect the future of the field, and the role of the JRME in the current and future scene. In particular, we asked these researchers to identify examples of work they considered significant and to comment on its imponant characteristics. We probed their definitions of the field by asking them to identify the types of work (e.g., empirical studies, historical or theoretical analyses) they judged could legitimately be called research in mathematics education. We explored their visions of the future of research over the next few decades. And we questioned them about the role and place of the JRME in the research community and about its impact on the field. In addition, we participated in a conference on Research in Mathematics Education and Its Results in May 1994 that was part of a study conducted by the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI). The discussion document framing the study (Sierpinska et al., 1993) and many of the presentations and conversations at the ICMI Research Conference should be acknowledged as sources of ideas for the article. Naturally, we have included our own opinions, analyses, and perspectives.

Background:The current main research trend in mathematics education is publishing studies by Western scholars pertaining to educational issues of the world in general. but Asia is mostly overlooked. Since international comparisons show Asian students outperform others in mathematics, the imbalance should receive more attention.Material and methods:To gain insight into this disparity, this study surveys all theoretical and empirical articles published by Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME), Educational Studies in Mathematics (ESM), and Mathematical Thinking and Learning (MTL) from 2000 to 2012.Results:Issues regarding westernization vs. internationalization of mathematics education and how to build a self-identity in research in mathematics education are addressed.Conclusions:A sociocultural framework for conducting and publishing educational research in mathematics is needed to develop multicultural perspectives.

The study aimed to analyze the trends of mathematics education research published in the Journal of Mathematics Education in the last five years and to propose a future map for mathematics education research in the light of the analysis results, professors’ and experts’ views, and the contemporary international trends. The study used a simplified model to classify research in seven domains. Also, the researcher used a questionnaire for professors and experts to determine a future map for mathematics education research. The results showed the research trends in the Journal of Mathematics Education were most of the articles were single authored (79.5%), the use of the experimental methodology (63%), the dominance of teaching strategies research (37%), the number of primary school students (27%) followed by the middle school students (26%), the category of normal students (89.7%), and the experimental research using one independent variable (62.5%). For the dependent variables, the articles used two dependent variables (30.7%). Achievement was the most frequent at 17%. The interaction of one independent variable with two dependents variables was the most frequent and the research co-authored by professors was 11%. The study suggested a future map for future mathematics education research. Recommendations and suggestions were presented. Keywords: Research trends, research priorities, mathematics education, educational research

The breadth of research in mathematics education has expanded relatively rapidly. From one area of specialization within psychometrics in the 1950s, it has grown into a field of inquiry that draws eclectically on the theories and methodologies of a broad span of science, social science and the humanities. As this field of inquiry has become more diffuse, both its rationale and its scope of potential utility have become less clear, both for educational practitioners and for those potential customers who fund the activity; in particular, those in central or local government or educational charities. An earlier paper that describes, explains and evaluates the development of research in mathematics education in the UK (Brown 1992a) concludes that the activities of the mathematics education community in that country are seen by such interests to be at best marginal, and at worst subversive, in relation to public concerns.

Este artigo aborda a leitura de textos da Educação Matemática que se utilizam da pragmática filosófica de Wittgenstein para apoiar seus trabalhos. É grande e crescente o número de trabalhos que se enquadram nesta característica, configurando-se, a nosso ver, em uma tendência dentro do campo científico. Tentamos nesta leitura abordar os principais motivos declarados pelos autores para o uso de tal abordagem filosófica nestes trabalhos, suas contribuições e limitações, bem como, quando era o caso, a discussão que se era feita ao trazer outros filósofos (ou teorias) de forma conjunta. Em certa medida, delineamos aqui alguns movimentos que vimos percebendo no campo da Educação Matemática quanto a estes usos. Certamente, muitos trabalhos ficaram de fora desta leitura, tentamos trazer aqueles que efetivamente têm nos apoiado nas discussões no grupo de pesquisa História da Educação Matemática em Pesquisa (HEMEP) e em disciplinas específicas sobre Wittgenstein e Educação Matemática, que vêm ocorrendo semestralmente desde 2014 no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Matemática da Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS). Os trabalhos elencados aqui versam sobre sala de aula de matemática, a matemática em outros ambientes, Etnomatemática, formação de professores e sobre pesquisas historiográficas em Educação Matemática apoiadas nas ideias do segundo Wittgenstein. Quanto às interlocuções, alguns destes trabalhos nos trazem diálogos desta pragmática filosófica com ideias de Romulo Lins, Jacques Derrida e Michel Foucault. Por fim, trazemos alguns breves apontamentos sobre esta leitura e algumas questões que ela nos coloca.

The Field Disruptions and Field Connections section of the Journal of Urban Mathematics Education (JUME) seeks manuscripts that bring to light innovative, underutilized, or marginalized theories and methods that show potential for radical reconfiguration in (urban) mathematics education research. In this introductory and invitational editorial to the section, I provide illustrations of field disruptions through the use of poststructural and agential realist theories in mathematics education research. The purpose in doing so is to highlight how past disruptions have caused shifts in what counts as mathematical knowledge and who can be seen as mathematical. I also point to examples of field connections that demonstrate the importance of innovation and creativity in not only what we research but also in the ways we research in urban mathematics education. Because new and newly considered theories and methods can and have shifted the field of mathematics education research, an intellectual space to share and explore these innovative contributions to the field is being created within JUME. Specifically, the section seeks submissions that bring forward theories, methods, and concepts that the author argues have potential to disrupt the structures that support systemic racism and other forms of exclusion in mathematics teaching and learning. In addition, as section editor, I welcome alternative texts, poetry, and research texts and data that may not fit or have been systematically excluded in more traditional disciplined spaces but speak to important issues in urban mathematics education.

Although research in mathematics education developed in the last decades as a vivid scientific field, the nature and the place of theories in the field are still under discussion. H.-G. Steiner contributed to this debate in several ways. He not only intervened in the scientific debate but also played an active role in organizing the discipline and the scientific discussion at the international level. This paper attempts to give a synthetic view of the evolution of mathematics education with respect to theory by focusing on the French situation of research in mathematics education and paying a particular attention to the role and contribution of H.-G. Steiner.

The investigation of research trends in mathematics education in the global landscape has been prominent in the recent years. However, there is a dearth of literature in investigating research trends in mathematics education in the Philippine setting. Thus, this bibliometric analysis on the research in mathematics education in the Philippines from 2013 to 2023 was conducted. This paper aimed to present scientific information about the distribution pattern of research on mathematics education in terms of discipline, the profile of prominent authors, the key subject areas which given emphasis, and the direction of research. A total of 993 articles were obtained from the Scopus database and were analyzed using the VOSviewer software application to see the research trends in mathematics education in the Philippines. Research articles emerged as the predominant document type, followed by conference papers. The pinnacle of mathematics education research in the Philippines was in 2014. Notably, the research trend in the Philippines for the last five years have observable decrease in mathematics education. Results show that in terms of discipline, problem solving, teacher professional development, and curriculum were typically the key areas of emphasis. Moreover, the top author with the greatest number of citations since 2013-2023 is a female researcher from Mindanao. Furthermore, the mathematics subjects that have the most attention are algebra, proof, calculus, technology, geometry, and modeling. Finally, this paper foresees continued growth in mathematics education research in the Philippines, particularly in the realms of professional development and problem-solving.

This response to Ted and Michael points out that we are unified in considering mathematics to be central in the work of mathematicians, mathematics educators, and mathematics education researchers. However, there are distinctions between the fields of pure mathematics research, the teaching and learning of mathematics, and research in mathematics education, and unless these differences are honored it is possible for researchers to talk past one another. The case of Swedish mathematics education research is examined to exemplify the distinctions. Another distinction is that between “training” and “education”. To further characterize mathematics education research, submission of manuscripts to Educational Studies in Mathematics is explored. Values and aesthetics in various relevant fields are touched upon. Finally, an example is given of the mutual enhancement that exists when mathematicians and mathematics education researchers work together in university mathematics departments.KeywordsDistinct fieldsPure mathematics researchMathematics educationMathematics education researchSwedenTrainingResearch manuscript submissionsAestheticsMutual enhancement

Children's Mathematics Learning: The Struggle to Link Form and Understanding

As pesquisas em Modelagem Matemática na Educação Matemática são realizadas há mais de três décadas no Brasil. Nesse período, é possível afirmar que há predominância da abordagem da pesquisa qualitativa. Nesse contexto, explicitamos alguns significados da pesquisa qualitativa em Modelagem Matemática na Educação Matemática no Brasil. Tais significados são descortinados sob uma abordagem fenomenológica de pesquisa, sobre a questão: como se mostra a pesquisa qualitativa em Modelagem Matemática na Educação Matemática? O solo para o qual a interrogação se direciona são os trabalhos publicados no III Seminário Internacional de Pesquisa em Educação Matemática SIPEM, realizado em 2006. As interpretações indicam fragilidades acerca do uso da abordagem qualitativa, principalmente, quanto à descrição detalhada dos procedimentos de análise, carecendo, portanto, de debates mais amplos para o avanço da pesquisa em Modelagem Matemática na Educação Matemática.