Introduction

Interest in the social psychology of education has shown a notable increase in recent years. In 1968, Rosenthal and Jacob son published a book entitled Pygmalion in the Classroom that, in spite of its many faults, played a considerable part in developing interest in the possible application of social psychology to educational problems. Social psychologists have developed a great many theories concerning a wide range of different phenomena. A social psychology of education will only draw on a limited amount of this. Furthermore, the processes involved in the expectancy effect initially studied by Rosenthal and Jacobson represent only a part of the social psychology of education. A social psychology of education would study the nature of relationships between teachers, and between teachers and their head teachers, as well as those that exist between teachers and pupils. It would investigate the relationships that exist between the school and its community.