ABSTRACT
The primary school in which I spent my first research year had, as I wrote above, a local reputation for being ‘progressive’. It was a pleasant place and I enjoyed being there, but to the extent that I came to think it typical, it misled me. My experience in this school, and much of what I had read, had persuaded me that children transferring from primary to secondary schools would also be moving from ‘progressive’ to ‘traditional’ learning contexts. Clearly, my mind has changed on this point and how the change was brought about will be the subject of this chapter. But let me first present some of the evidence that had contributed to my error.
