ABSTRACT
All the projects were based upon the concept of educational citizenship, although a clearer explicit understanding of the classroom application of this concept developed throughout the three phases of the research with the identification and refinement of the 12 factors of independent learning. From the second phase onwards, at staff meetings prior to the inception of a project, the 12 factors were discussed and copies distributed. Before the start of every project, I addressed any class that might choose to be involved and the same procedure was followed. Meetings with parents, governors and whole-school staff conformed to the same pattern. A list of the factors was used to orientate any visiting observers. Each project was undertaken at the request of the school, generally from the head of English, sometimes by individual teachers, sometimes by headteachers. No teacher or pupil was involved who did not wish to be. During a project all involved in the research partnership (pupils, parents, teachers, observers) were regarded as equals and encouraged to express their opinions about independent learning. I have already discussed the philosophical differences between independent learning and the normal presentation of the normal curriculum. Another significant difference, at an organizational level, was that
independent learning was developed as a local partnership characterized by the mutual trust of all involved and was very much a consensual process. This was in direct contrast to teachers' strongly-held views that national reforms had been imposed by a centralized government that either ridiculed or ignored the views of those who would have to implement the National Curriculum in the classroom.
