A Participatory Turn in Mathematics Education Research: Possibilities and Tensions

Author:
Oyemolade Osibodu York University, Toronto, ON

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Sunghwan Byun North Carolina State University, Raleigh

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Victoria Hand University of Colorado Boulder

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, and
Carlos LópezLeiva University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

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Volume/Issue:
Volume 54: Issue 3
Page(s):
225–232
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc-2021-0147
Restricted access
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Subjects:
Other Topic, Equity, Agency/Identity/Empowerment, Diversity/Culture
Keywords:
Participatory approach; Research paradigm; Research in mathematics education; Equity; Justice

Mathematics education researchers concerned with justice and rehumanizing mathematics education are increasingly calling for research that takes seriously the values, commitments, and voices of the communities for which the research is most consequential. Exclusion of or superficial engagement with these perspectives and experiences in research and design processes have perpetuated deficit perspectives of minoritized communities, rendering them simply the object of reform efforts. Consequently, this Research Commentary conceptualizes a participatory turn in mathematics education research, offering a set of commitments that guide and examine the possibilities and tensions of such a turn.

Footnotes

We thank and acknowledge the National Science Foundation (NSF) for its support of Grant No. DRL-1417672 entitled Access, Agency, and Allies in Mathematical Systems (A3IMS). We thank the FLAIMS project team for their partnership and inspiration. We thank Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, Michelle Fine, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and feedback on earlier drafts. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

Contributor Notes

Oyemolade Osibodu, Faculty of Education, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3; mosibodu@yorku.ca

Sunghwan Byun, College of Education, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695; sbyun2@ncsu.edu

Victoria Hand, School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80301; victoria.hand@colorado.edu

Carlos LópezLeiva, Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131; callopez@unm.edu

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Copyright:
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc. All rights reserved. 2023
Page Count:
8
Article Category:
Research Article
Received:
19 Jul 2021
Accepted:
30 Nov 2021
Print Publication Date:
01 May 2023
Online Publication Date:
May 2023
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