ABSTRACT
Stand at the school gates and watch the school day begin. Observe as adolescent students empty from the buses, carrying their bags and books, and amble along the paths into the school-grounds and halls, where they gather in loose groups with friends to talk and socialize before moving to assembly or dispersing to their classrooms. Be aware that each day the pattern is repeated, as the adolescent tide drains from the neighbourhoods to flood into the school precincts. Within the jurisdiction of the school these individual young people are transformed into a community governed by rules and conventions intended to organize and control their behaviour, where teachers attempt to engage their minds in academic tasks. Operating alongside the formal system of schooling there is an informal system of social network relations; and both exert influences on adolescent motivation to shape their school experiences.
