ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the final phase of the cycle, which is also of course the first phase of the next cycle. It deals then with educational changes which result from the social interaction just discussed – with structural elaborations which will in their turn condition future interaction and further educational change. The aim here is to link a specific mechanism of change (the interaction of educationally dominant and assertive groups) with its effects on the structure of education and the relations between education and society. It should be underlined, however, that none of the macroscopic changes which will be discussed are presumed to be more adaptive, efficient, stable or legitimate than the preceding forms of education with their different relationship to the wider social structure. Such concepts can be used to describe or assess the consequences of social change (which may or may not reveal greater adaptation, efficiency, stability or legitimacy), but they cannot be used as a substitute for analyzing the processes which produce change or examining the characteristics which are transformed.
