This is a companion volume to the editors’ Insights into Teachers’ Thinking and Practice (Falmer Press, 1999) and seeks to carry the discussion on further illustrating that there is a continuing intensity of thought, activity and debate on how to conceptualise research on teacher thinking, and thus generate knowledge for further understanding and action. The ethical questions on undertaking research on the inner lives of teachers remain unresolved.

The international team present chapters which investigate the relationship between the researcher and the researched, and the relevance and role of research in teacher development. The papers are not presented as ‘best practice’ for such definitions would be inevitably value laden. Rather, they are indications and anticipations of key areas for the development of understanding of teachers’ thinking and actions in the 1990s.