ABSTRACT
Atul Gawande’s (2007) advice for a better science of teaching, learning, and development is to gain knowledge about actual practices which is tested in everyday contexts. Even given that we were better at doing this there is still the central question of this book. It is the question of just how optimistic we can be. Even with the best science in the world how realistic is it that through changes in schools generally equitable outcomes are achievable? This book started with the tension between traditions in educational theorising about schools and their effectiveness. There is a fractured terrain of ideas about the agency of schools in overcoming the abiding gaps in achievement that those children for whom schools have traditionally been risky places have experienced.
