At the end of the 1992-93 school year, Dutch schools finished their preparations for a new core curriculum for the first stage of secondary education. One of the problems teachers faced in implementing this curriculum was the problem of class heterogeneity. How teachers dealt with heterogeneity was studied through an examination of the use of…

This volume uses research to examine the symbolic processes in which teachers and students negotiate definitions of their roles, relationships, and knowledge in the context of educational tracking, particularly lower-track classrooms. The research on which the book is based includes interpretive accounts of curriculum differentiation and an…