3357

David W. Stinson, Erika C. Bullock

philosophy of mathematics education

2015

29

Critical Theory , Methodology, , Postmodern Theory , Research Methods

Mathematics education research over the past half century can be understood as operating in four distinct yet overlapping and simultaneously operating historical moments: the pro-cess–product moment (1970s–), the interpretivist–constructivist moment (1980s–), the so-cial-turn moment (mid 1980s–), and the sociopolitical-turn moment (2000s–). Each mo-ment embraces unique theoretical perspectives as it critiques or rejects others. And given that methodology is inextricably linked to theory, each moment calls forth not only differ-ent theoretical possibilities but also different methodological possibilities. In this article, the authors briefly discuss and critique the methodologies that are “traditionally” found in each moment and explore some of the methodological possibilities made available in the sociopolitical-turn moment. Specifically, the authors promote another way of thinking about and looking at methodology when research is framed with/in the sociopolitical hy-brid of critical postmodern theory.