A phenomenological methodology based on Husserl’s work in the service of mathematics education research

International audienceThe paper introduces a phenomenological methodology based on Husserl’s work and on Merleau-Ponty’s radical extension of Husserl’s work. The phenomenological reduction and bracketing (epochè) are introduced as the critical methodological instruments in exploring the emergence of mathematical understanding, by casting phenomenological light on the learner’s intentional cognitive constitutions, from the passive to the active stage of her or his lived experience. An empirical example is used in order to showcase the impact of the researcher’s methodological shifting, from the natural to the phenomenological attitude (the reduction and the epochè), and the methods and techniques that are used, in allowing the methodology to produce results. A summarising diagram and some notes for the usefulness of the methodology application for mathematics education research are included