Developing complex understandings: On the relation of mathematics education research to mathematics

Abstract

This article explores some of the intellectual bases of the apparent cultural divide between the fields of mathematics and mathematics education research. The chasm is in part attributable to epistemologies or theoretical `paradigms', fashionable in education, that dismiss or deny the integrity of fundamental aspects of mathematical and scientific knowledge. The solution offered is for the next generation of mathematics education researchers to knowledgeably and thoughtfully abandon such `isms' in favor of a unifying scientific and eclectic approach to research.