ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the level of the processes of adaptation to school. Drawing on the arguments put forward throughout a study it is evident that if pupils do adopt a 'pro-school' or 'anti-school' career pattern: they conform or deviate in only certain respects and by no means on all occasions, there is a variety of motivations to be found among 'pro-school' and 'anti-school' pupils, and career decisions are made continually and pupil orientations are subject to the possibility of change and drift. The selective acceptance of school norms and values is evident in the way certain pupils adopt the goal of success in terms of academic qualifications and yet sometimes show little respect for the authority of teachers and often resist school demands. Consequently the study places emphasis on those very features of pupil orientation which the subculture and adaptation models have overlooked - basically contextual variability and decision-making.
