Abstract:
This study adds to the small collection of publications on researching in the community of mathematics education. The study is concerned with research traits of experienced and well-acknowledged scholars and it is driven by the question: how does an expert in mathematics education engage her or his knowledge and practices in research? The data come from Karp [9] that encompasses reflective interviews with leaders in mathematics education. The inductive content analysis of the data revealed four research traits: exploiting a research study for learning, taking a non-mainstream position, seeking ideas and crafting research opportunities, extracting ideas from national and international enterprises. The findings are situated in the literature on expert thinking.