Foreword

At the start of the millennium, a great sea change in educational policy moved teachers to the center of global policy discussions about how to reform and improve education (OECD, 2005). Ignored, dismissed as relevant, or even characterized as impediments to reform in previous decades, teachers are now routinely portrayed as the key to providing quality instruction. The quality of the national teaching force is recognized as a major factor in any nation’s attempts to improve its overall educational performance. Teachers, one might argue, are finally getting the attention they deserve.