Discourse Research in Mathematics Education: A Critical Evaluation of 108 Journal Articles

There has been increased engagement in studying discourse in the field of mathematics education. But what exactly is a discourse, and how do researchers go about analyzing discourses? This study examines 108 articles from 6 international journals in mathematics education by asking questions such as these: In which traditions and in relation to which kinds of epistemological assumptions are the articles situated? How is the concept of discourse used and defined? How are mathematical aspects of the discourse accentuated? The results of this study show that a variety of conceptualizations are used for analyzing discourses but also that many articles would benefit from strengthening those conceptualizations by explicitly defining the concept of discourse, situating the article in relation to epistemological assumptions, and relating the work to other discourse studies in mathematics education.