ABSTRACT
The strong family resemblances among the 23 specific reforms in our study came as a surprise to the researchers. There are, of course, critical differences: some of them are very important, and many of them are described somewhere in this book. As distinctive as the countries are in their history, their educational systems and the current configuration of the pressures for change, there are striking likenesses among the actual innovations, both in the kind of subject matter that they emphasize and which is the focus of this chapter, and in approaches to teaching it, which will be the subject of Chapter 3.
