This article reports the ® ndings of a small scale investigation in the form of a blind study carried out in four schools in the north east of England. It concerns the relationship between teacher motivation (n 5 4) and pupil motivation (n 5 66) during pupils' participation in design and technology project work at Key Stage 4. It was recognised that the sample of teachers was too small to be considered representative of motivated and demotivated design and technology teachers in general terms. However, the information gathered provided a more informed picture of the possible link between pupil motivation and teacher motivation. It also supplied an indication of some of the differences that exist between the approaches to teaching adopted by motivated and demotivated teachers of design and technology project work.

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In this paper we describe a UK‐based participatory action research project that looks beyond the discourse of tolerance to investigate and challenge heteronormative processes in primary schools through reflective action research. This 28‐month ESRC‐funded project supports 15 primary teachers working in schools in three regions of the UK to develop action research projects that address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in their own schools and classrooms. In this paper we will examine how the original principles on which the project design was based have manifested themselves throughout the course of the project, drawing upon examples of classroom practice and reflective discussions among project team members. We will explore how designing intentionally for collective participation has produced spaces for people to do and think in ways that have not only gone beyond what we imagined but have also challenged and sometimes contradicted our own ways of thinking.

The debate surrounding educational research in the UK has been fuelled by four recent government-funded publications that have thrown doubt on the validity, relevance and applicability of educational research. In this paper, the author offers a critique of these publications and questions their privileged role in informing government policy. She challenges the current trend towards instrumentalism in funded educational research, and explores the ways in which theories, rather than evidence, provide an essential infrastructure to teachers' day-to-day thinking and practice. Finally, she compares the restrictive effect of a narrow focus on 'what works' with the opportunities offered by postmodernism for broadening the scope, purpose and interpretation of the research of the future.

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