Introduction

This book is about multigrade schooling. It reports the results of some mostly small-scale research projects carried out in a developing country (South Africa) and a contrasting developed country (Australia). A multigrade class is a class that has students or learners from more than one grade, taught their grade curriculum by one teacher, usually in one classroom. The research primarily focuses on multigrade teaching contexts in South Africa and so adds to the relatively limited empirical knowledge in this field. This Introduction presents an overview of each chapter and the relevant issues discussed therein.