A central question within the 'new' sociology of knowledge is whether schools act as agencies of transformation or reproduction. Allied to this question is the skeptical claim that schools do not make dramatic differences to children's behaviour, performance, or attitudes in any case. The present ethnographic, grounded theory study, which was located in working class, predominantly Polynesian schools, focusses on these two points and argues that 'successful' schools, through much modified curriculum content, through changed pedagogical techniques and through alternative organisational styles, were endeavouring to effect transformations. However, by contrast, 'unsuccessful' schools were aiming at reproducing existing structures within the community.

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