An important report, ‘A Rich Seam’, written by Michael Fullan and Maria Langworthy, was published earlier this year. It signals the potential for a long-awaited decoupling of research and political pressure. It suggests that teachers as a profession are now starting to drive the direction of educational research based on what works in the classroom, rather than what plays well in the opinion polls. Meanwhile, in England, the government’s schools inspections agency (OFSTED) sought to re-assert its independence last week, when its Chief Inspector – accused by government advisers as trapped in 1960’s ‘progressive’ teaching methods – argued that insisting …