This study adds to the small collection of publications on researching in the community of mathematics education. The study is concerned with research traits of experienced and well-acknowledged scholars and it is driven by the question: how does an expert in mathematics education engage her or his knowledge and practices in research? The data come from Karp [9] that encompasses reflective interviews with leaders in mathematics education. The inductive content analysis of the data revealed four research traits: exploiting a research study for learning, taking a non-mainstream position, seeking ideas and crafting research opportunities, extracting ideas from national and international enterprises. The findings are situated in the literature on expert thinking.

experts in mathematics education research, mathematics education community, researcher knowledge development, research traits.