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Abstract: In 1996 at the first Iranian Mathematics Education Conference (IMEC1) that was held in Isfahan. I obliged myself as a mathematics educator, to inform the mathematics community at large by presenting a paper entitled “what is mathematics education?” to pave the way for the establishment of the master program of mathematics education in Iran. Now, after 16 years, we need to reflect on this rapid development and ask ourselves that “what is not count as mathematics education”. In responding to this serious question, a metaanalysis was conducted that its data consisted of the PDF files of all the rejected research papers to the IMEC12 that were coded and all the personal identification for them were removed.  The main purpose of this study is to reflect on what has happened in last 16 years, hoping to “learn from the past to avoid its repetition!”