Much research has been done on the factors that influence teachers’ work. Yet, the nature and scope of those factors, and their impact on teachers, remain unclear. Indeed, different literature bases on teachers’ work present different and often contradictory conclusions.
For example, some researchers claim that mandated accountability testing exerts the greatest impact on teachers’ work. Yet, other researchers claim that teachers’ knowledge and beliefs have an equally strong impact on their work as does mandated testing.
These contradictory findings in the research seem to happen at least in part because most research into teachers’ work only looks at one or two influences on that work and ignores how multiple factors work together to influence teachers’ work.