This study focuses on how a cohort of participants in a programme aimed at producing "turnaround leaders" came to understand this policy and their role within it. Using a theory of action framework, I find that, over time, participants' espoused theories of turnaround shifted in three key areas: (1) the cause of poor school performance, (2) the principal's approach to leading change, and (3) the district's role in turnaround. While these shifts created more complex views of organisational change, they also produced disillusionment and highlighted tensions in current conceptualisations of turnaround including their potential role in enacting it.