This article falls under the research area of school development. It also takes into account neo-liberalistic tendencies, such as these have been approached in educational research. The article takes as its starting point a development project that began when four rural secondary schools turned to their regional university for scientific support. It seems to be a general fact that more and more schools turn to universities for help as a result being subjected to ranking lists, i. e. a neo-liberally oriented phenomenon in such. School development work has proven difficult in general terms and current tendencies, I argue, risk reinforcing these difficulties. The urgent, practical needs from the schools risk colliding with the critical interests of academia. Here, I argue, we find a problem that needs further exploration. The aim of this article is to explore responses from teachers towards a specific activity that encouraged the teachers to take an objective look at their day-to-day practices, and to relate teaching and assessment approaches theoretically to pupils’ social backgrounds. Three aspects were investigated in particular: first, teachers’ attitudinal responses to being provided with an understanding of diverse and conflicting interests; second, teachers’ attitudinal responses to being provided with tools for meeting school rhetoric in a critical way; and third, teachers’ attitudinal responses to being guided by a specific pedagogical discourse. The data consists of 61 written responses from teachers representing four rural schools. The “appraisal theory” was adopted as an analytical tool for capturing evaluative stances from the teachers. The results highlight the intricacies of confronting teachers with certain sociological and theoretical topics that reveal the fact that school is not a neutral place. I suggest further debate on this matter.