A Participatory Turn in Mathematics Education Research: Possibilities and Tensions

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.