In this commentary 26-year Ontario district teacher, Jeff Stickney, begins by surveying balanced approaches to large- and small-scale education reforms: contrasting linear alignment with more complex ecological models, drawing on recent work by Andy Hargreaves (2008; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2012). Next, through a brief case study of School Effectiveness Frameworks (SEF) and Instructional Rounds in York Region, he demonstrates some of the internal contradictions that stall well-intended reforms. Presenting alignment and consensus discourse as the supposedly common sense, default "picture that holds us captive" (Wittgenstein, 1968, PI §115), he then draws on the political philosophies of Michael Oakeshott, Chantal Mouffe and Jacques Ranciere to offer (respectively) opposing views of non-alignment, agonistic pluralism and dissensus as integral, conservative and radical elements of professional autonomy in education.