Mathematics education research, its nature, and its purpose: A discussion of Lester's paper

This commentary discusses the framework for mathematics education researchers outlined in Lester's (2005) paper. The author reacts to (a) Lester's concern about the current political forces in the U.S. to define scientific research in education rigidly, and offers a possible reason—apart from political ideology—for the emergence of hese forces; (b) recapitulates lester's outline and model for theory-based research in mathematics education, and intereprets Lester's paper as a call to the MER community to respond to the current political forces that (inappropriately) shape our field and (c) addresses the role of mathematical context in MER, a topic absent from the paper's narrative.