The volume provides a systematic view on recent and contemporary research into textbooks in a range of contexts. As well as exploring the historical development and the design of textbooks and issues around the teaching of specific subjects, it examines aspects of textbooks relating to cognitive psychology and the influence of textbooks on the learning process. The authors investigate textbooks as foci of teachers' and learners' expectations, their use and the extent to which they meet the challenges of migration and the inclusion of children with disabilities in schools. The recommendations with which the volume concludes provide educational practitioners with guidance for using educational media in the classroom and education policymakers with encouragement to establish the trends the volume describes at the top of the research and education policy agenda.