This paper reflects upon and discusses the case of a participatory action research project in a public school in Nepal with the aim of exploring the possibilities for participatory approaches to contextualised teaching and learning. We discuss how research-degree students and school stakeholders involved in participatory needs assessment identified the need for contextualised teaching and learning and the participatory and generative model of contextualised teaching and learning we initiated in response. However, at the end of three different participatory action research (PAR) cycles, we came to an understanding that, for sustainable pedagogical reforms, even buzz words like 'participatory' and 'shifts in perspectives' have some limitations. In a bureaucratic schooling structure, like that in Nepal, pedagogical innovations for contextualised teaching and learning have to negotiate pre-structured schooling cultures, and therefore, any change in individual and group perspectives has to be accompanied by a shift in regular schooling design, from linear closedness to ecological openness. Otherwise, the innovations for contextualised teaching and learning are unlikely to be sustained in the face of the dominant practice architecture.