ABSTRACT
When first invited to act as discussant for Michael Shayer and Mike Beveridge I wondered if they would produce ‘head to head’ papers, an intense academic debate which required me to find common ground and adjudicate fierce disagreements. I was pleased to find the papers complementary. Beveridge’s masterly account of the socio-politics of educational reform creates a theoretical context, a political surround which neatly holds Shayer’s carefully argued empirical demonstration of the power of Piaget and Vygotsky in the classroom. Thus Beveridge provides the macro-context for Shayer’s micro-level paper.
