Mathematics Education Researchers (MER) community
Ten years ago, conversations emerged across mathematics education that challenged dominant paradigms of what counts as mathematical knowledge and who is recognized as a knower (e.g., Civil, 2016; Gutiérrez, 2017; Nemirovsky et al., 2017; Rosa & Orey, 2016). These conversations were an inflection point that pushed education and research communities to reconsider the assumptions of mathematics knowledge: that is, the traditional definition of math-as-content was challenged by illustrations of math-as-cultural and math-as-participation. This special issue is intended as another inflection point, inviting the field to reflect on past ways of knowing and to envision future possibilities, asking: Where are we now as a field? What progress have we made—and what possibilities remain unrealized—in expanding our understandings of mathematical ways of knowing? What forms of evidence do we value, and what forms of evidence may we still ignore? What changes in society, technology, and learning opportunities make new types of mathematics knowing and doing possible?
The importance of this special issue lies in its challenge to dominant framings of mathematics knowledge, which are often shaped by formal schooling, standardized assessment, and Western epistemologies. Such framings risk narrowing the field’s understanding of mathematical content and knowing to a single worldview, limiting the visibility of knowledge systems that emerge from other geographies, histories, and cultural logics. As Millroy (1992) notes, it can be difficult to even “see” mathematics outside of these dominant forms, especially when researchers' visions are shaped by their schooling. Yet everyday practices—from sewing to engineering design, from play to protest—often involve complex mathematical reasoning that goes unrecognized or undervalued, especially for learners from non-dominant communities (de Abreu & Cline, 2007; Civil, 2016). For example, diverse cultural, familial, and disciplinary traditions—whether rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing, diasporic experiences, or community-based practices—expand our understanding of what mathematics is and can be.
The move to broaden definitions of mathematics must also be accompanied by a parallel shift in how we come to know and represent what counts as mathematics. Therefore, the field must confront the limitations of its methodological tools. How we collect data, whom we involve in knowledge construction, and what we count as evidence shape what becomes visible in research. Methodologies that center researcher authority or rely solely on canonical representations of mathematics may fail to capture the rich, multimodal, embodied, or emotionally grounded dimensions of learning (Kastberg et al., 2025). As Falk et al. (2016) and Rahm (2016) argue, researchers must not only reimagine what counts as mathematics, but critically reassess the methods by which we come to know and represent it.
We invite submissions (8000 words including tables and figures) from a range of empirical and methodological studies that engage critically with the field’s evolving understandings of mathematical ways of knowing, particularly those that challenge dominant, often narrow,
epistemological framings across a range of learning contexts—including formal, non-formal, community, and everyday spaces.
Interested authors should submit their expression of interest in the form of an abstract (up to 1000 words) emailed to r...@bsrlm.org.uk by 7 May 2026. As part of the abstract, address the significance of the study in relation to the rationale. Include the names and affiliations of all authors.
Topics of Interest
We welcome contributions across countries, practices, and local traditions. We are looking for perspectives and lenses not always represented in academic scholarship. This may include a range of cultural settings - from classrooms to museums, from urban centers to rural communities, from formal institutions to homes, and from farms to playgrounds - as well as a range of learners. Contributions may relate but not limited to:
- Empirical studies of mathematical practices rooted in Indigenous, diasporic, or community knowledge systems, challenging Western epistemological dominance.
- Research exploring the authorization and positioning of individuals as mathematical knowers in formal, non-formal, or everyday settings, particularly for learners from non-dominant communities.
- Studies that illuminate complex mathematical reasoning embedded in activities like sewing, engineering design, farming, or social protest, making visible the knowledge that is currently undervalued.
- How new technologies (e.g., AI, data science) or societal shifts create and necessitate new forms of mathematical knowing and doing.
- Empirical examples of methodologies designed with—not just about—participants (e.g., participatory action research, collaborative design), emphasizing shared authority and reciprocity in mathematical knowledge production.
- Mathematical studies detailing methodological decisions that explicitly empower participants and shift conventional power dynamics within the research relationship.
Timeline:
- Abstract deadline: 7 May 2026
- Abstract decisions: 15 June 2026
- Submission of papers: 31 October 2026
- Feedback provided: 31 January 2027
- Revised papers: 31 March 2027
- Publication: June 2027
More: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/reframing-recognition-whose-mathematics-whose-methods-whose-stories/