This paper focuses upon practitioner research that engages teachers in the enquiry process to contribute to professional learning. Building upon EU funded research undertaken in the area of science teacher education, examples of curriculum workshops are examined following Schwab’s suggestion for deliberative groups that enable participatory deliberation and enquiry. Evidence for the validity of outcomes is derived from a qualitative assessment of the application of discourse rules by the group, the composition of the group, and from the use and critical reflection of a common information base about the common issues. The relevance of outcomes for students and/or trainees mainly depends on a democratic consensus among the group members about a “key question” to guide the deliberation process. The pedagogical model behind this type of practitioner research is grounded in Schwab’s “practical” which implies that both theory and practice are forms of enquiry and that the school is a place to practice democratic behaviour rather than merely to teach about it. These findings are illustrated by data from curriculum workshops that had been conducted to document and analyze examples of school-based teacher education in European countries.