This study provides a description and analysis of how teachers read research in light of prior beliefs about what research is and how it should influence teaching. Attention to teachers' beliefs has become an essential feature of studies designed to help understand research. The beliefs on which researchers and teacher educators typically focus are teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning. Teachers' beliefs about the use of educational research influences understanding. Participants (N=13), teachers with substantially different research experiences, were interviewed subsequent to reading and responding to three different types of research articles and two sets of research findings. They were then asked to evaluate what had been read. Results indicate that in light of teachers' prior beliefs there are substantial differences in terms of willingness and/or ability to read and understand research. If research is to play a role in educating teachers, it is suggested that teacher educators and researchers pay attention to how teachers read research, and to their beliefs and understandings. (Author/LL)