Abstract

The prevailing perception of mathematics education as an objective and value-neutral discipline disconnected from sociocultural, economic, and political contexts has historically been the dominant paradigm within the field. This perception has perpetuated the phenomenon of “knowledge colonization”, which engenders various forms of epistemic and ontological violence in countries of the so-called “Global South”. In this paper, we present a comprehensive literature review that employs natural language processing (NLP) techniques to explore this complex landscape by acknowledging pervasive biases and power imbalances that affect marginalized communities in Latin America. We analyze publications from 44 Latin American journals over 2014-2024 and map a discursive network to identify emerging trends and concerns shaping the development of local mathematics education in the region. In doing so, our paper provides an overview of the evolving landscape of mathematics education research in Latin America, challenging diffusionist approaches and assessing the progress of Latin American scholarship amidst complex socio-cultural and political realities. Our findings suggest that locally grounded theoretical contributions remain peripheral, while non-local frameworks continue to dominate. Building on the concept of Propio, we argue for epistemic justice through theoretical innovation anchored in the region’s histories and struggles. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Mathematik e.V. 2025.