ABSTRACT
The vision of school mathematics that orients the larger part of studies on teachers and teaching at Congress of European Research in Mathematics Education (CERME) is to some extent informed by reform efforts that have also been promoted on the other side of the Atlantic. The focus on mathematics teachers' knowledge has been prevalent at every CERME conference. The character, development and possible impact of teachers' beliefs have been recurrent themes in research on and with teachers for decades, and they are also important in studies presented at CERMEs. Teachers must balance purposeful, planned classroom teaching with the ongoing decision-making that can lead the teacher and the class into unanticipated territory from an effective mathematical and pedagogical knowledge base. Identity is sometimes mentioned in passing in CERME papers and as an unproblematic reference to prospective or practising teachers, who need to think differently about themselves as teachers or teachers-to-be.
