This paper explores the link between teacher research and whole school change. As the authors investigated three US schools described as having close ties between teacher research and school culture, they discovered that moving teacher research out of individual classrooms and into entire schools is astonishingly difficult work filled with paradox and seeming-impossibilities. They offer six key paradoxes and conclude that when these paradoxes are managed, teacher research has the potential to affect both the culture of schools and the experience of teaching and learning for students and teachers alike.