Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.   As one of the four core courses in the mathematics education area of specialization, the course aims at familiarizing doctoral students with theories, problems, and practices that are specific to mathematics education research.  The course addresses sample lines of research to illustrate issues of theory, design, method, or application paying attention to epistemological issues in the pursuit of research in mathematics education.  Students engage in reading and discussing articles on the epistemology of science and social sciences and commentary and review papers in mathematics education. May be elected twice.