Whilst the general picture about curriculum reform is gloomy, this ignores the considerable changes that individual teachers and small groups manage to make. This paper reports on the innovation efforts of teachers engaged in a Curriculum Enquiry module of a Practitioners Enquiry Masters programme. We use the frame of Cultural Historical Activity Theory to consider the ‘border practices’ (Edwards & al 2007) of the enquiry enthusiasts and the contradictions that were being generated through this innovative practice which relates, for example, to the rules that govern classroom learning behaviours and classroom roles become redefined. Through thematic analysis of portfolio assignments and interviews with a sample of participants, we have identified those aspects where innovating teachers perceive that they had made most progress and where they ran into obstacles. They perceive for example that students respond very positively to choice, demonstrate responsibility and creativity, can work very collaboratively and appreciate being listened to. However they also report features of a performativity culture (Ball 2003) and surveillance system which gives primacy to a very subject-centred, objectivist view of learning with linear progression. There is an emerging contradiction between how enquiry enthusiasts conceptualise learning and progress and the conceptualisation of the wider system.