Explored through a focus on the behaviour and related experiences of a 9 year old Muslim Somalian boy called Zak, Woods offered a fascinating in-depth case study account of the rewards and sanctions systems in place at a culturally and religiously diverse London primary school. Over a period of 18 months, Woods employed a range of methodological techniques to reflect on and demonstrate the ways in which Zak was a "boy who often broke school rules" and for whom traditional behaviourist methods of reward and sanction seem to have been fundamentally unhelpful. Unfortunately, while the paper is largely thought-provoking, there is little exploration of how Zak's behaviour might be understood through the wider lens of race/ethnicity, gender, and social class, especially in relation to national statistics on education and the now substantial body of qualitative research on pupils' experiences of school. In this article, the author considers how examination of such issues may have contributed to Woods' overall analysis and concludes by making a plea for a much stronger role of reflexivity in qualitative research where issues of difference are pertinent. (Contains 1 note.)