Multiple perspectives for the study of teaching: Knowledge, reason, understanding, and being

This study analyzes the participation of secondary school teachers in a U.S. science education curriculum reform effort. All participating teachers agreed to implement the curriculum in their classrooms; however, the level at which it was implemented varied significantly among teachers. This article reviews the available perspectives used to account for the behavior of these teachers—reliance on a knowledge base, practical reasoning and reflective practice, and sociocultural views—and argues they are incomplete. A fourth perspective is developed in which teaching is viewed as a way of being and teachers as meaning makers immersed in educational situations. The remainder of the article is a cross‐case analysis of two teachers' use of the curriculum as seen from each of these perspectives on teaching. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 1032–1055, 2002