Publisher's Synopsis
"The past two decades have seen an increased interest in education, especially in core areas such as mathematics, language and science. This is in part a consequence of the increase in the number of international comparisons of educational outcomes, such as PISA and TIMSS. Much research has focused on the contributions that curricula, financial resources, parental support, and so on, might have on educational outcomes. A factor that seems likely to have a very significant effect on student achievement, teachers' practices and beliefs, has received little attention. This book reports results from a research program that sought to develop and employ research methods to compare teachers' practices and beliefs across Canada. It provides insight into the challenge of such research, and describes teachers' contexts, beliefs and practices, and how they differ, in four regions and across two languages. Using a multivocal ethnography approach (T