The varied chapters of this book seek to capture the complexities of teaching and learning in today's

schools, and they share an interest in exploring the influences of knowledge construction in the moment and

over time. Teaching and learning are human processes, interrelated and dynamic. We assembled this

collection to unpack what it means to teach and to learn, teasing out some of the implications and challenges

of such complicated educational processes that are often misconstrued as causal or linear. As educators

currently residing in the United States, we find this a particularly pressing agenda, given the current focus

on common core standards and reducing teaching and learning to conceptual and pedagogical stepby-step

procedures. Our primary concern in putting together this book was to provide a conceptual and political

foundation from which to construct and defend understandings and practices of teaching and learning that

embody the complexity of educational endeavors and relationships. The isolation of teaching from learning,

and the othering of both teachers and students, one from the other, suggests that knowledge is synonymous

with information. This book challenges such assumptions.

The project underlying this text can be seen as a means of rethinking how teachers' and students' perspectives of practice and curriculum influence

what learning opportunities are provided to students. Chapters written by established and new thinkers in the field of education demonstrate the ways

in which teachers reformulate relationships between teaching and learning in school settings. Our second objective is to examine local constructions of

knowledge over time and how those constructions are consequential for teacher and student learning. By examining patterns of practice and processes

of knowledge construction in elementary, secondary, and undergraduate classrooms, the authors of these chapters lay a foundation for examining

commonalities and differences in the construction of knowledge and practices across educational levels, disciplines, and in-school and outof-school

settings.