ABSTRACT
The background to developments that have occurred within the Scottish education system in the last ten years or so have been summarised, including a series of studies carried out by researchers associated with the University of Glasgow’s Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change. The overall approach adopted involves practitioners, other stakeholders and researchers in working together, using forms of collaborative action research to find more effective ways of improving the learning, development and life chances of children and young people, particularly those who are vulnerable within existing arrangements. The Queensland study added further evidence of the potential of collaborative inquiry. Its power seemed to be the way it led to an engagement with different views on how schools can become more equitable. Participatory and collaborative inquiry processes, although not set on achieving consensus, do provide opportunities for negotiation of multiple perspectives around shared agendas, rather than producing evidence from a single viewpoint or source.
