In this article, the author presents a review of his extended research engagement with disadvantaged young people and their education. He challenges the dominant neoliberal model of school reform based on business values and the "managerial school" as alien to educational values. He introduces various stages of research he and his colleagues have undertaken over the past two decades, showing the importance of an authentic engagement with young people's lives, the characteristics of schools which reach out to disadvantaged students and the importance of transformative pedagogy and community involvement.