ABSTRACT
The experiences of the pupils, teachers and schools with which we worked suggested that consultation can have a ‘transformative potential’ but we are cautious about making great claims because we are keenly aware of the difficulties, in the system and in schools, of realising that potential. We are also aware of David Hargreaves’s reservations about a casual use of the term ‘transformation’:
Transformation has recently become the language of educational policy makers . . . They seem very comfortable with the term, though I am not at all sure they know what they are talking about. When virtually every new development is allegedly transformative, it is vital to ask what the term really means.
