Diagrams and mathematics education research: A methodological reflection

In this paper we address a methodological reflection on data presentation and visualization in our field, especially concerned with ways to display bodily and material engagements as relevant to mathematical activity. We narrate a story of methods in mathematics education research, which focuses on the need for alternative ways of showing and presenting data if we want to adequately address the body and the interaction body-tool in mathematical activity. We focus on diagrams as a research method to explore learning events where the bodily, the tactile, the kinaesthetic, the affective, the cognitive, etc. are all entangled in shaping the activity. We discuss examples of the use of image and diagrams in research practice and develop lines of flight around a desire to use them creatively, how they transform data and the issue of the entanglement between researcher and data.