This article aims to critically reflect on the position of mathematics within mathematics education research in Indonesia by employing JinfaCai’s perspective as a conceptual lens. The article is motivated by the growing tendency of mathematics education research to focus predominantly on general pedagogical aspects, such as the effectiveness of instructional models, the use of media, and the integration of technology, while providing relatively limited attention to mathematical thinking, mathematical structures, and students’ processes of mathematical reasoning. Using a reflective-philosophical approach grounded in literature review, this article analyzesJinfaCai’s ideas concerning the importance of positioning students’ mathematical learning at the center of mathematics education research. The reflection reveals that many mathematics education studies in Indonesia still tend to position mathematics merely as a context for instruction rather than as the epistemological core of inquiry. Such a condition potentially causes mathematics education to lose its disciplinary distinctiveness as a field rooted in human mathematical activity. This article emphasizes the importance of reconstructing the direction of mathematics education research in Indonesia by placing mathematical thinking, problem posing, mathematical reasoning, mathematical creativity, and epistemic judgment as primary research concerns. Furthermore, the integration of technology and artificial intelligence in mathematics education should be directed reflectively so that these technologies do not replace students’ mathematical thinking but instead strengthen it. This article is expected to contribute to the development of mathematics education research in Indonesia that is mathematically more substantive, philosophically more reflective, and more relevant to the challenges of education in the digital era.
Keywords: mathematics education, mathematical thinking, Jinfa Cai, philosophy of mathematics education, problem posing, artificial intelligence.
