Attempts at modernising teaching practice to support a revision of school education are occurring in a number of countries as part of the lifelong learning agenda (European Commission 2002; OECD 2005).The lifelong learning discourse promulgates a switch from a didactic, ‘schooling’ tradition of teaching to a more constructivist, ‘developmental’ approach (Usher & Edwards 2007) that requires an alteration in teachers’ conceptualisation of their role and practice.  A change in professional identity that entails teachers enabling pupils to build and create knowledge for themselves (Drew & Mackie 2011, Priestley et al 2012) rather than transmitting knowledge for them to absorb. At the same time there has been a movement towards engaging established teachers in collaborative practitioner research as part of a pragmatic, practice-based approach to enhancing teachers' professional knowledge and skills (Cochran-Smith & Lytle 2009). This paper reports on the findings of a study of eighteen practitioner research projects carried out, as part of a Master's programme: Professional Enquiry in Education (the MEd), by aspiring chartered teachers in Scotland. These enquiries were completed between May 2010 - June 2011. They were therefore carried out in the context of; the implementation of a constructivist curriculum, the Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive 2004, Scottish Government 2006-2010) and the continuing operation of a quality assurance regime introduced in the late 1990s that has become increasingly focused on measures of attainment (Reeves 2008).

The paper explores evidence, contained in the reports and portfolios submitted by students, as to how the various 'tools' made accessible to them on the MEd programme were mobilised, both in their classrooms and in the wider context of their schools. It looks at how the discourse of professional enquiry used on the MEd programme (Buchanan & Redford 2008) interacted with other discourses that permeated these students' work settings. The methods used in the analysis focus on the discursive and material relations created across social spaces as students undertook the work-based enquiries which were an integral part of their postgraduate programme. The study highlights how the discourse, and associated tools, of practitioner research and enquiry were translated in the eighteen different school contexts as part of the performance of the MEd (Latour 1999, Reeves 2010). The purpose of the study was to apply a new perspective for exploring questions about the impact and sustainability of attempts to influence teaching practice through the use of practitioner research by focusing on the social dynamics of the activity.

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