Historical Review of the Theses Approved in the Venezuelan Master’s Degree Programmes in Mathematics Education (1974-2016)

Background : 1974 is the landmark of the launching of postgraduate studies in Venezuela and other Latin American countries. Objective : Answer the following question: (a) How can we detail the foundation of the PVMEMs and how have they evolved until now? Design : We carried out a multiple case study of a particular nature, developing it into three phases: (a) Pre-Active, considering previous studies related to the subject; (b) Interactive, corresponding to the fieldwork: identification of two active PVMEMs and semi-structured interviews with the people linked to the programmes above, who can provide information of interest to the study; this phase was closed with the organisation of the textual and oral corpora, fundamental for the study; and (c) Post-Active, when we proceed to: analyse and interpret the collected, reduced and organised information; organise the results obtained and provide the answers to the guiding questions of the research. Data collection and analysis : We saw that seven universities in Venezuela hold master’s degree programmes in mathematics education. During the study period,

creation of the PVMEM at the Caracas Pedagogical Institute and the National Experimental University of Guayana. Since the mid-1990s, advisors and authors of theses have increased interest in addressing questions related to the processes of teaching and learning mathematics but incipient adoption of theories specific to the area of mathematics education. Conclusion: For future studies, we organised a textual corpus of the master's degree theses approved by the PVMEMs between 1974 and 2016 to examine, identify the contributions with which they contributed to the Venezuelan scientific production in mathematics education, and recognise the trajectory of Venezuelan mathematics educators who, over time, achieved the status of scientific authority and developed academic genealogies.
Keywords: Social history of mathematical education, Cultural capital, Master's degree in mathematics education, Disciplinary frontiers.

INTRODUCTION
The research reported in this article had, as a matter of investigative interest, the theses defended and approved in the Venezuelan master's degree programmes in mathematics education between 1974 and 2016. The initial year marks the beginning of postgraduate studies in mathematics education not only in Venezuela but in the entire Latin American region, as confirmed by Pacheco Moros and González (2021). Indeed, it was in Caracas (Venezuela) when, in 1974, the master's degree programme in mathematics education was created at the Pedagogical Institute of Caracas (Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas -IPC). The founder and first coordinator of the institute was Dr Mauricio Orellana Chacín.
The contextual reference framework of this research is the Social History of Mathematics Education in Ibero-America (Historia Social de la Educación Matemática en Iberoamérica -HISOEM-IB), developed in the PhD in Mathematics Education at the Libertador Experimental Pedagogical University (Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador -UPEL, Venezuela) (González, 2014a;.
As a science, history (Ferrater, 2011) allows us to situate events chronologically. Thus, when referring to events that have occurred during a time other than the one we want to describe and interpret, it is necessary to assume a historical perspective to situate them in an adequate geographical and temporal framework. We assume that HISOEM takes into consideration the sociocultural practices (Mendes & Silva, 2017) associated with processes of teaching, learning, studying, evaluating, and creating mathematics -both academic and school and daily-carried out by both recognised or reference (Toulmin, 1972(Toulmin, /1977 and anonymous authors/agents: classroom teachers, street vendors, artists from various areas, artisans, doll makers, sewists, etc. In this way, HISOEM is a perspective of the history of mathematics education that goes beyond the stories, the actions of two heroes, two didactic books and other materials used in mathematics education. It is a history of a disciplinary field that considers ideas, concepts, and theories originating from its own mathematics, history, sociology, epistemology, anthropology, philosophy and other human sciences. The central aspect of this perspective is to examine the development over time (history) of the interactions between the protagonists (agents and authors of reference) of various situations and social practices (sociology) in multiple contexts (diffusion scenarios) where teaching practices are developed, learning, studying, and evaluating the different varieties of mathematics: academic (created by professional mathematicians), school (taught in different educational institutions), daily (used by people in their various professionals and non-professional daily activities, such as carpenters, bricklayers, many other workers or technicians, artisans, and fishermen, etc.) (González, 2022, pp. 447-448).
Taking into account the central aspect of HISOEM, the study focused on one of the scenarios of diffusion of mathematics education in Venezuela (González, 2014b;Humbría & González, 2020), in this case, the Master's Degree Programmes in Mathematics Education (Programas de Maestría en Educación Matemática -PVMEM) that are developed in the country, emphasising one of its most relevant products: the theses, i.e., the systematic studies of theoretical or practical problems typical of mathematics education and that allow its author to demonstrate "mastery in the area of the master's degree award and its own research methods" (UPEL, 2016, p. 15). The programmes mentioned are part of the "institutional forum" (Moreira, 2005) of Venezuelan mathematics education and "they have become one of the most relevant components of the disciplinary, institutional forum. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to separate research from postgraduate studies. Even in universities, commissions, councils, and vice-rectorates often exist for research and postgraduate studies" (Moreira, 2005, p. 187).
So, considering the fundamental role played by the master's degree programmes above in the growth and disciplinary consolidation of mathematics education in Venezuela, with this research, we intended to build answers to the following questions: (a) What were the details of the foundation of the postgraduate studies in mathematics education in Venezuela? (b) How did the PVMEM evolve?

REPERTOIRE OF THEORETICAL CONCEPTUAL REFERENCE COORDINATES
This section exposes the theoretical and conceptual location of the research, explaining its historical, sociological, epistemological, and systemic perspectives.

Historical Perspective
From the historical point of view, we considered Barros' (2008) approaches. Regarding the historical dimensions proposed by this author, the study assumes the history of the present time (Soto Gamboa, 2004). Regarding his approach, we adopted the archaeological-genealogical perspective, suggested by Álvarez-Uría (2008) and applied by Romero Villasmil (2018a, 2018b) in the realm of mathematics education as a disciplinary field (Bourdieu, 2000(Bourdieu, , 2011, considering the HISOEM (González, 2022).
Why the history of the present time? As Venezuelan mathematics educators, we have been directly connected to the development of mathematics education in Venezuela. We were educated as mathematics teachers and later became teacher educators. We also graduated from one of the master's degree programmes that are the object of interest of this research. At present, we assume mathematics education as our field of professional activity and remain linked as professors and advisors to at least one of these programmes. Therefore, we are contemporaneous with our matter of investigative interest and, consequently, agents and witnesses of the history we are currently telling (Soto Gamboa, 2004).
On the other hand, executing the work implied a process of "archaeological immersion and hermeneutical contemplation" (González & Villegas, 2009, p. 103); that is, we had to delve into the files, repositories, and documents to obtain robust and suitable information on which base we could build the guiding questions of this study. The archaeological nature of the study refers to searching, locating, obtaining, registering, describing, ordering, organising, tabulating, etc., the information from/in the theses approved in the PVMEMs during the period 1974-2016. The hermeneutic aspect concerns the authors' interpretation of the previously collected and organised information in the textual corpus of analysis. This characteristic of the study is genealogical (Álvarez-Uría, 2008), that is, explanatory. It is about examining historical aspects (in our case, the future of the PVMEMs) not from the past but from the present and thereby contribute to the historical reconstruction of mathematics education in Venezuela (González, 2015). By complementing the archaeological perspective with the genealogical one, it is possible to build a trajectory that links the genesis of the PVMEMs with their current situation and, from there, identify some of the factors that have conditioned the development as a disciplinary field of mathematics education in Venezuela (Malizia & González, 2013;González, 2014). So, by adopting the genealogical perspective in this work, according to Mendes and Silva (2014), we intend to study the origin and evolution of the PVMEMs from a substantial part of their scientific production represented by the theses approved since the first of the programmes founded in Venezuela.
Finally, considering the PVMEMs as part of the Institutional Forum of Diffusion (Moreira, 2005) of mathematics education in Venezuela since they are scenarios of diffusion (Humbría & González, 2020), where the professional activity of their authors/agents of reference is manifested (Toulmin, 1972(Toulmin, /1977. Furthermore, their interactions have contributed to the consolidation of the discipline in the country. In this study, we adopted the social history of mathematics education -(HISOEM), conceived as a narrative that considers notions, concepts, and theories from mathematics, history, sociology, epistemology, anthropology, philosophy and other diverse human sciences. The central aspect of this perspective is to examine the development over time (history) of the interactions between the protagonists (agents and authors of reference) of the different situations and social practices (sociology) in the multiple contexts (scenarios of diffusion) the teaching practice, learning, study and evaluation of the different varieties of mathematics develop: academic (created by professional mathematicians), school (the taught in the different educational institutions), daily (that people use in their various professional and non-professional daily activities), professional, such as carpenters, masons, and many other workers or technicians; as well as artisans, fishermen, etc.) (González, 2022, p. 448).
In summary, the research reported is located in the field of mathematics education, studied from the present time, from a historical-social perspective and approaching it from an archaeo-genealogical perspective.

Sociological Perspective
In its sociological dimension, in this study, we assumed Bourdieu's (2000) formations related to his idea of the scientific field, which he defines as: A system of objective relationships between positions acquired (in previous struggles), it is the place (that is, the game space) of a competitive struggle whose specific challenge is the monopoly of scientific authority, inseparably defined as technical capacity and social power or, if one prefers, the monopoly of scientific competence, which is socially recognised to a given agent, understood in the sense of the ability to speak and intervene legitimately, i.e., authorised and authoritative in matters of science (p. 12).
For the specific case of mathematics education in Venezuela, such an "objective relationship system" is manifested in the SOEMV. This allows illustrating relationships and positions assumed by the action in the different diffusion scenarios that constitute the institutional discussion forum of its actors of reference who, as social agents in the field and according to the opportunities they have to act, acquire scientific authority and, therefore, accumulate cultural capital, which manifests itself in different forms or states and consists [...] First, in the transmission and accumulation of experiences, values, knowledge, and attitudes (incorporated state); secondly, in possession of tangible cultural goods, such as books, paintings, sculptures, etc. (objectified state); and third, in a certificate endorsed by legitimising institutions (institutionalised state), in the form of institutional recognition of the cultural capital possessed by a specific agent, the school diploma also makes it possible to compare its holders and even "exchange" them (substituting one for the other in succession). It also makes it possible to establish convertibility rates between cultural capital and economic capital, guaranteeing the monetary value of a particular cultural capital. (Bourdieu, 2011, p. 220) Paraphrasing what was exposed by this distinguished French sociologist, the incorporated state of the cultural capital is constituted by everything that an individual, as a social agent, "knows" (the knowledge they have) and "knows how to do" (skills, dexterities, abilities competencies) and the attitudes and values that govern their actions within their society; the objectified state is constituted by all the productions of the most varied nature that it has managed to generate throughout its existence and that is manifested in tangible goods; finally, the institutionalised state is made up of the recognitions that have been conferred on it due to its performance within organisations, institutions and other groups of a collective nature, whether academic, professional, political, religious, sports, etc.

Table 1
Cultural Capital of Mathematics Education of Venezuela, produced

Incorporated
Represented by the knowledge associated with mathematics education as a discipline acquired by master's degree students. Also, for their skills, abilities, and competencies to produce knowledge through different research strategies.

Objectified
Consisting of the theses or undergraduate projects prepared, presented, and defended publicly and approved by the students of the PVMEM.

Institutionalised
The master's degree obtained conferred on each student of a PVMEM who had their theses approved.
Thus, in this study, we consider it pertinent to use Bourdieu's notion of cultural capital as a category of interpretation and analysis of the theses approved in the PVMEM, conceiving them as "objectified cultural capital" of Venezuelan mathematics education as they are the result of the joint work of the postgraduate students and their advisors, tutors, or mentors developed within specific diffusion scenarios such as the master's degree programmes articulated in the SOEMV, making them creditors of the academic master's degree in mathematics education. Table 1 summarises the three states of the cultural capital of mathematics education in Venezuela, produced in the PVMEM.

Epistemological Perspective
The epistemological perspective of this study is Toulmin's (1972Toulmin's ( /1977 conceptual evolutionism. This author suggests that the formation of scientific concepts is not an exclusively individual matter of science makers, but rather that they evolve as they are used collectively (Siqueira Harres & Porlán Ariza, 2021).
In this regard, Porlán (1989) points out that The evolution of concepts and the intellectual ecology of people do not obey an exclusively individual process; on the contrary, they are the result of social communication at all levels (direct, written, audiovisual, etc.) and of its capacity to solve the individuals' most pressing problems and their cultural environment. As a consequence of the continuous social production of conceptual varieties, it is possible to select and retain for their collective use those with more power to solve each type of specific problem. (Porlán, 1989, p. 58) (bold in the original) In this study, Toulmin's concepts are considered insofar as they allow us to understand the process of disciplinary consolidation, applied to the case of mathematics education in Venezuela, understanding such a process not as paradigmatic revolutions, as Thomas Kuhn would say ( 2001), but rather as "conceptual evolutionary," as Toulmin affirms. In the words of Moreira and Massoni (2016): From Toulmin's standpoint, disciplines are also seen as evolving -not eternal-historical entities, and as rational enterprises in historical development. Intrinsic (or intellectual) and extrinsic (or social) factors condition this evolution, this development. For example, the creation of reference groups, associations, and recognised journals plays an important role in the maturation and disciplinary evolution. (Moreira & Massoni, 2016, p. 20

) (authors' translation) 1
Based on what is stated in this section, we estimate that the PVMEMs are spaces where the concepts that, in their evolutionary process, help to shape and consolidate mathematics education as a disciplinary field in Venezuela circulate and are collectively used (by master's degree students, professors, advisors, and researchers).

Systemic perspective
The study assumed the systemic vision of mathematics education in Venezuela proposed by Beyer (2001), expanded by Belisario (2015) and, later energised by Humbría and González (2020), in the so-called "Octocategorial System of Venezuelan Mathematics Education" (Sistema Octocategorial de la Educación Matemática Venezolana -SOEMV) (Figure 1).

Figure 1
Octocategorical System of Venezuelan Mathematics Education (SOEMV) (Adapted from Humbría and González, 2020, p. 17) The SOEMV emerges by incorporating into the dynamic categorical epistemic synergy (Sinergia Epistémica Categorial Dinámica -SECD) conceived by Belisario (2015), the category Forums or diffusion scenarios. In this way the category Postgraduate courses, that is, higher level education programmes, such as specialisation, master's degrees and doctoral studies, are related both to the Institutions, which are the spaces where these studies are developed [forming part of the Institutional Diffusion Forum, Moreira (2005)] and the Actors of Reference, who contribute to teacher education, turning towards the production of knowledge through Research, which are consigned as undergraduate completion papers, master's degree papers, and doctoral theses, whose results are made visible through Publications of scientific articles in specialised journals; or communications in events [promoted by local, national, regional, or worldwide Organisations related to mathematics education, such as the national societies of mathematics education, the Ibero-American Federation of Mathematics Education, the Inter-American Commission on Mathematics Education, or the Latin American Committee for Educational Mathematics]; In short, the Postgraduate courses category is related to institutions, actors of reference, research, and publications. (Humbría & González, 2020, p. 19

) (brackets added)
The systemic perspective, synthesised in the SOEMV, in line with what was affirmed by Godino (2000), allows us to attribute to mathematics education in Venezuela the character of a disciplinary field the PVMEMs have contributed to consolidate.

METHODOLOGY
From the point of view of its design, the research can be characterised as multiple case studies (Yin, 1994) because it is based on the analysis of the approved master's degree works from several Venezuelan programmes in mathematics education (PVMEM). In this sense, it was a particular study since the theses are unique and unrepeatable. Although locating them demanded much effort, we could access them through different channels, some of which allowed us to obtain information from people who were -or are-directly linked to the PVMEMs.
Following the suggestion of Martínez Bonafé (1988) to develop the design of this type of research, the study was carried out in three phases: (a) Pre-Active; (b) Interactive; and (c) Post-Active.
Since the study is part of a long-term investigation related to the Social History of Mathematics Education in Venezuela (HISOEM-Ve) (González, 2014), during the pre-active phase, we had to define the inquiry target. Hence, we decided to continue with previous studies related to the PVMEMs (Table  2), assuming the theses as the focus and defining 1974 (the year of the foundation of the first PVMEMs) to 2016 as the period to be investigated.  Venezuela (1990Venezuela ( -1999 The interactive phase corresponded to the fieldwork. The first step consisted of identifying the PVMEMs that were active and establishing contact with people linked to said programmes and who could provide information of interest to the study: coordinators, professors, administrative staff, students, and even service, support and security personnel, who were given details about the nature, objectives, and importance of the study. These first approaches, which progressively deepened, allowed access to the theses, many of which (due to the time elapsed since they were defended and approved) were found in the "historical files," colloquially called "cold case files," given that, although they retain significant documentary value, they are no longer part of the dynamics of the programme's daily academic activities. These files were usually not stored in suitable sanitary conditions to safeguard researchers' health, forcing researchers to wear masks, gloves, and a flashlight. Moreover, several theses and other essential documents for research were stored in online repositories of the host universities of the PVMEMs.
During the interactive phase, we could also interview people who had relevant information about any of the programmes, such as Dr Mauricio Orellana, founding coordinator of the master's degree programme of the Pedagogical Institute of Caracas (Pacheco Moros, 2020); The interactive phase concluded with the organisation of the textual corpus and the oral corpus. The first is constituted by two matrices, where the summaries and the minutes of approval of each located thesis were included. In the second, the official and historical documents of each PVMEM studied were included (official documents of the Venezuelan master's degree thesis in ME: study curriculum, study programmes, list of coordinators of the programmes (ordered chronologically), a historical review of the creation of the PVMEMs, redesign in the case of those programmes that changed their names or lines of research, and historical documents on the creation of the universities where the PVMEMs are developed. These documents were found in published books and articles).
The oral corpus was built from the transcripts of the testimonies offered by the interviewed people, coordinators of the master's degree programmes, advisors and examiners, i.e., chroniclers who knew the history of the PVMEM investigated. The data was collected through interviews conducted via email, WhatsApp text messages, Skype synchronous calls, video calls on mobile phones and Facebook messages.
Once both corpora were constituted and, to examine the traced theses, we proceeded to our respective narrative and bibliometric analysis.
Finally, during the post-active phase, we proceeded to: analyse and interpret the information collected, reduce and organise the results obtained, and propose the answers to the guiding questions of the investigation.

Organisation of the Information Collected
The research revealed seven universities developed master's degree programmes in mathematics education in Venezuela. Four programmes are based at the Libertador Experimental Pedagogical University (Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador -UPEL -Pedagogical Institutes of Caracas, Barquisimeto, Maracay, and Maturín). The remaining three are based at the University of Carabobo (Universidad de Carabobo -UC), the Rómulo Gallegos National Experimental University (Universidad Nacional Experimental Rómulo Gallegos -UNERG), and the National Experimental University of Guyana (Universidad Nacional Experimental de Guayana -UNEG). Of these programmes, 973 of the 1,012 catalogued theses were located (Table 3). Each thesis was coded to facilitate its location and, according to the interests of the study, the following aspects were considered, as shown in

Narrative Analysis and Bibliometric Analysis
We conducted a narrative analysis supported by the information provided by the people interviewed to identify some of the historical milestones of the Venezuelan master's degree programmes in mathematics education (PVMEM).
Authors such as González (2014) suggest that the founding milestone of mathematics education as a disciplinary field in Latin America was the holding of the First Inter-American Conference on Mathematics Education (Primera Conferencia Interamericana de Educación Matemática -I CIAEM), in December 1961 in Bogotá, Colombia. In this event, Prof Manuel Balanzat was the only member of the Venezuelan delegation. In the other editions of the CIAEM, the number of Venezuelan delegates increased to such an extent that the IV CIAEM was held in Caracas under the coordination of Dr Mauricio Orellana, founding coordinator of the master's degree programme in mathematics education of the PI of Caracas, whose project was approved on May 17, 1974, starting its first cohort on September 2, 1974. The details of the founding process of this programme, considered the first in Latin America, are exposed in Pacheco Moros and González (2021).
Almost a decade later, in 1983, the inter-institutional master's degree programme in mathematics education was created in Barquisimeto (Lara state), which, through an agreement signed by the three most important higher education institutions in that region, awarded three mentions: pure mathematics, applied mathematics, and mathematics teaching, which would be conferred by the Lisandro Alvarado Central Western University (Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado -UCLA), the Antonio José de Sucre National Experimental Polytechnic University (Universidad Nacional Experimental Politécnica Antonio José de Sucre -UNEXPO) and the Libertador Experimental Pedagogical University (Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador -UPEL, PI of Barquisimeto).
In 1984, in UPEL -PI of Maracay, the master's degree programme in higher education, mention in mathematics, was created. This programme approved some theses that addressed specific mathematical topics on differential equations, algebra, and mathematical analysis. However, given the low number of students, it was practically deactivated and, being the object of a curricular reform, gave way, in 1988, to the master's degree programme in education, mention in mathematics teaching, beginning its first cohort with this denomination in 1989. On July 17 of this same year, a similar programme was created at UPEL -PI of Maturín.
According to the exposed data, we can infer that the Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador has contributed since the 1970s by laying the foundations for the development of postgraduate studies in mathematics education in Venezuela. This pioneering work continued in other universities in the country. For example, in October 1989, the Universidad de Carabobo created its master's degree programme in education, mention in mathematics teaching, which, in 2001, turned into a master's degree programme in mathematics education. In 1991, UNERG also created a master's degree programme in education, mention in mathematics teaching. Finally, in 1994, UNEG of Puerto Ordaz, Bolívar state, created the master's degree programme in mathematics educational sciences, mention in mathematics teaching, which changed its name in 2015, becoming a master's degree programme in mathematics education. The chronological trajectory of the creation of the PVMEMs is illustrated in Figure 3.

Figure 3
The chronological trajectory of the creation of MME programmes in Venezuela.

Bibliometric Analysis
The bibliometric analysis studies the organisation of scientific and technological sectors through bibliographic sources to identify the actors (researchers) and their relationships and reveal research -theoreticalconceptual and methodological-trends (Spinak, 1996). To do so, it was necessary to previously define bibliometric indicators referring to the activity of the PVMEMs linked to the theses approved in these programmes during the period 1974-2016.

Theoretical-conceptual indicators
(a) Theories: theories adopted in the theses approved from 1974 to 2016. Own theories or specific theories of the discipline, or general theories that are not own but that are assumed in the investigative process. Theoretical perspectives assumed by the authors of the theses (master's degree student and advisor). These emerge from mathematics education research and are fed by this disciplinary field; they are not included in ME because they are somehow independent regarding their structure for research. Moreover, they show the evolution of the research trend.
a. Mathematical Object (MO / OM 3 ) : FDIEM that ontologically assumes to guide the teaching and learning of a specific mathematical object. b. Other Sciences (Osc / OC): FDIEM that ontologically considers guiding the teaching and learning of mathematics from other areas such as engineering, accounting, economics, agronomy, architecture, aviation, physics, chemistry, and biology, among others. c. Especially inclusive (EI / EI): FDIEM that ontologically assumes to guide the teaching and learning mathematics in special education, terminology attributed to Martínez (2018). d. Scientific Field (ScF / CC): FDIEM ontologically directs the study of the social behaviours of research in mathematics education, seen from the cultural capital produced in the SEMV (Beyer, 2001). e. Mathematics Education (ME / EM): FDIEM that ontologically supposes to guide the teaching and learning of mathematics, describing the study processes and designing and developing educational resources (playful games, concrete material, instructional material, Web pages). f. Teacher Education (TE / FD): FDIEM that supposes ontologically guiding the teaching and learning of mathematics from teacher education: initial and continuing education of mathematics teachers or elementary school teachers. g. Mathematics (M / M): as an interdisciplinary field, these studies focus only on the mathematical entity. In this investigative category, mathematics is studied as a science.

Productivity indicators
(a) Regularity During the interactive phase of the study, we came across 973 of the 1,012 theses approved from 1974 to 2016, in the seven PVMEMs examined in this study. Figure 4 shows the distribution by institution and triennials   Authors' gender. Figure 5 shows that from 1974 to the end of the 1980s, there was no predominance of male or female authors. The situation was maintained during the 1990s when a substantial increase in the approval of theses was noted, maintaining a balance of productivity by gender. The beginning of the first decade of the 21st century saw an increase of 14% in favour of female compared to male authors. However, in 2016, gender incidence was balanced again. In general, we conclude that there is homogeneity in productivity by gender. Figure 6.

Levels of the Venezuelan educational system to which the theses refer
During the 1970s and 1980s, the theses focused predominantly on higher education (undergraduate and postgraduate). However, since the 1990s, secondary education predominated, followed by higher education. Thus, the most studied educational level between 1974 and 2016 was secondary education, with 554 incidents, equivalent to 54.74%.

Theoretical-conceptual indicators
(a) Theories adopted in the theses Figure 7 shows the theories adopted in the theses, which are classified into (a) Theories of mathematics education; (b) Interdisciplinary theoriespsychological, pedagogical, sociological, philosophical, curricular and others; and (c) Theories not stated by the investigator. We observed that, from the second half of the 1980s, theories of mathematics education began to be adopted incipiently at first but boosted from the first decade of the 21st century.

Theories adopted in the theses
At the same time, the tendency to appeal to interdisciplinary theories continues, with the following authors predominating: David Ausubel, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Bruner, Robert Gagné, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, Joseph D. Novak, Sergio Tobón, Hendrik Radazt, and Edgard Morin, among others.

Mathematical topics examined in the theses
According to what is shown in Figure 8, Geometry (Loci, Conics, Trigonometric ratios, Geometry of space) is the most researched mathematical topic, with 194 incidents (19.17%), followed by Algebra, Mathematical Analysis, Arithmetic, Statistics and Probability. Regarding the Unspecified Mathematical Topic indicator, there is an incidence of 366 theses (36.16%) in which the examined mathematical entity is not explicit. This issue deserves to be studied in greater depth because this absence of mathematics in research within the field of mathematics education weakens them. Figure 9 shows that the FDIEM with the highest incidence is Teacher education, with 359 (35.47%) cases. As of the first decade of the 21st century, a more significant explicit presence of mathematical entities is noted in the theses, taking the following elements as reference for them: epistemological analysis of the mathematical object, own theories of mathematics education, and supporting theories from other fields, which implies the recognition of the need to expand and strengthen the investigative processes in mathematics education.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on the narrative and bibliometric analysis of the information obtained, answers to the guiding questions of the research reported in this article are offered below.

(a) Foundation of Postgraduate Studies in Mathematics Education in Venezuela
Concerning the details of the creation of postgraduate studies in mathematics education in Venezuela, we confirmed that on May 17, 1974, the first PVMEM was created in the PI of Caracas, also being the first of its kind in Latin America (Ávila, 2016;Fiorentini, 1994;Pacheco Moros, 2020;Pacheco Moros and González, 2021;Orellana, 1973).

(b) Evolution of Venezuelan Master's Degree Programmes in Mathematics Education in Venezuela
The three master's degree programmes in mathematics education, created after the UPEL -Caracas Pedagogical Institute programme were: (1) in 1983, the Inter-Institutional Master's Degree in Mathematics in Barquisimeto, Lara State, through an agreement signed by UCLA, the UNEXPO and UPEL -Barquisimeto Pedagogical Institute, mention in Mathematics Teaching; (2) in 1984, UPEL -Maracay Pedagogical Institute, with the denomination of Master's Degree in Higher Education, mention in Mathematics; and (3) in 1989, a programme analogous to that of the Maracay Pedagogical Institute was founded at UPEL -Maturín Pedagogical Institute. However, even though these programmes were conceived to strengthen the education in research of mathematics teachers to prepare them to respond to the problems detected in the teaching and learning of mathematics at secondary and higher education levels, the master's degree students were more inclined to study specific topics of the so-called pure mathematics, leaving mathematics education at the background.
Between 1989 and 1994, the other three PVMEMs were founded (Universidad de Carabobo, in 1989;Universidad Nacional Experimental Rómulo Gallegos, in 1991;and Universidad Nacional Experimental de Guayana, in 1994); Since the mid-1990s, the interest of advisors and authors of theses boosted in addressing issues related to the teaching and learning processes of mathematics at the different educational levels, predominantly in secondary education and, although in this decade the theses still addressed topics typical of pure mathematics, this interest gradually faded. In addition, we perceived an incipient adoption of theories from the field of mathematics

PROSPECTION
A relevant product derived from this study was the organisation of a textual corpus of the theses approved in the PVMEMs from 1974 to 2016. That corpus included 1,012 catalogued theses, of which we localised 973 that we chronologically organised and coded (see Figure 2).
The theses defended and approved in the PVMEM must still be examined from the perspective of their contributions to Venezuelan scientific production in mathematics education.
In the same way, it is interesting to recognise the trajectory of Venezuelan mathematics educators who, over time, achieved the status of scientific authorities and developed academic genealogies. For this, it is necessary to examine their personal and social origin, educational history, professional development, academic and scientific performance, and contribution to other mathematics educators' education to transmit from generation to generation the cultural and scientific heritage of mathematics education in Venezuela.