Assumptions about ‘normal development’ are commonplace within education. Consequently teachers are expected to use standardised frameworks to inform teaching and learning. Academic attainment is predicted to be lower for children identified as having special educational needs, disabilities (QCA, 2000 p18), English as an additional language (ibid p19), or vulnerable children (HM Government, 2004). Such value judgements about children’s potential requires teachers to sort children in ways that are not only socially and educationally divisive but limits the opportunities for teaching and learning for all children (Gould, 1996; Hart et al., 2004). Hart and her colleagues have developed a pedagogy, based on the notion of 'transformability' (Hart et al., 2004), as a more inclusive alternative to approaches that depend on assumptions about normal development. 'Transformability' asserts the principled belief that ‘all children’s capacity to learn can change and be changed for the better as a result of what happens and what people do in the present’ (p166). This informs thinking about children’s learning in two ways: that the present is the future in the making; and that ‘nothing is neutral’ (p170). From this position it becomes unacceptable for teachers to predict or predetermine children’s capacity to learn. Rather, it is understood that learning is achieved as a result of relationships within communities. Using the concept of 'transformability' as a frame for thinking, this paper reports on a research project that asked: 1. How can teachers act to enhance the learning of all children in inclusive classrooms? 2. How can teachers be determined for the children they teach without pre-determining what will be achieved?

The research used methods of ethnography, and the potential of Teacher-Research (Burnaford et al., 2001), to develop research strategies that more fully capture the complexity of classroom practice when teaching diverse groups of learners (Florian, 2007). From the position of a teacher of a class through a school year, the research documents the move from an implicit form of inclusive practice to a more consciously knowing one. The methods and techniques that generated the data were an integral part of teaching and learning, reflecting the children’s roles as active participants in the research. The process of analysis developed reflective expertise. Multiple case studies (Stake, 2006) were constructed as a way of sampling and interrogating data, considering individual occurrences and sequences of events to understand children’s learning.

The findings presented in the paper show that diverse learners can be included in what is made generally available to all children. To achieve this the teacher must: • Work from the notion of transformability – the theoretical and principled belief that all children’s capacity to learn can change and be changed for the better as a result of what happens and what people do in the present (Hart et al., 2004 p166) • Be concerned with ‘warranted’ rather than ‘best’ practice – accepting that ongoing reflective analysis of classroom events and routine questioning of interpretations is essential. The findings presented highlight the value of widening understandings of learning and learning outcomes for the creation of inclusive learning communities. Choices and decisions made by teacher and children showed a strong concern with how the actions of the individual relate to the community, and the interconnectedness of past, present and future.