The TL21 project is a major initiative funded by an international philanthropic foundation, with supplementary funding from the Dept. of Education of the Irish Government. In a nutshell, the issues it addresses concern the quality of teaching and learning in Ireland's second- level schools. This question of quality is quite different however from that of the effectiveness of teaching and learning. The project's two main aims can be summarised as: (1) to strengthen (post-primary) teachers' capacities as the authors of their own work (2) to encourage students to become more active and responsible participants in their own learning. For this presentation we have selected four of the challenges that the project is trying to tackle. We will report on salient aspects of our work to date and highlight some insights that have emerged from that work. The four challenges we have selected for consideration in this instance are the following: 1. Gap between the demands of school administration and the necessities of leadership Inherited practices of leadership in Irish second-level schools - as internationally - have tended to create and maintain a rift between work that is essentially administrative in character and action that is essentially educational in character (Leader & Boldt 1994). With Principals and Deputy Principals we have been working to create new opportunities that allow teaching and learning issues to move closer to the heart of what school leaders do on a daily basis. Progress has been very heartening in some instances, slower in others. 2. Conformist tenor of teaching and learningInherited practices in Irish second- level schools have characteristically "delivered the goods" in terms of examination success, and the schools are generally deemed successful in international comparisons. (OECD 2002). All too often however, such practices have not prized imagination and originality in learning or in teaching, and have sometimes made the teacher a servant to predictable routines dictated by textbooks. (Over ? of Irish 15 yr olds "often feel bored" at school, while the OECD average for this is under 50%. [OECD 2002]) The project's action-research processes have been encouraging participating teachers to engage critically with their own teaching approaches and to document and analyse how the quality of their students' learning has been influenced by changes in the teachers' pedagogic practices. There is considerable progress to report here, though issues with far-reaching implications for inherited curricular provision have also come to the fore. 3. Insulation and isolation of teachers Teachers in second- level schools are largely insulated and isolated from their professional colleagues. (Ireland fares particularly poorly here compared to other countries [OECD 2004]). Teachers' relations with one another, and with Principal, Deputy Principal, are often informal, but are rarely enough informed by ideas of active professional collaboration on teaching and learning issues, or by practices of self- evaluation and peer review. Our early experiences with the project's participants highlighted the pervasiveness of this insulation and isolation. More recently, participating teachers themselves have begun to confront it as a disabling feature of their professional lives and to acknowledge how it inhibits both teaching and learning in their classrooms. Some of the project's most interesting work lies in this area. 4. Misconceptions about students' understanding of themselves as learners Ireland's second-level students all too rarely take an active and responsible hand in their own learning. This is not to say that they don't work. Evidence shows that many work very hard, but often bypass the real and enduring benefits of their studies as they become absorbed in a national preoccupation with extrinsic inducements, rewards and prizes. The cultures of teaching have regularly reinforced these misconceptions among teachers. The real issues to be tackled under this heading lie deeply ingrained in accepted custom and routine in the schools and are only slowly becoming explicit. Ultimately what is at stake here is a questioning of the nature of the relationship between student, teacher and the subject taught. To pursue this questioning involves an "unlearning" of previous practices that were teacher- centred and essentially hierarchical. To date the project has been carefully laying the ground to encourage both teachers and students to rethink their roles. Our aim- in- view is to make acceptable as normal practice new ways of understanding and practising, so that students come to have a more active and responsible involvement in their own learning. Theoretical Framework: action research; analysis of teachers' and school leaders' documented narratives and reflections; review of emergent findings in light of relevant international literature; testing and evaluation of innovative practices; making such practices sustainable in cultures of teaching and hopefully mainstreaming them.