ABSTRACT
The evolution of a new constituency capable of reshaping the school subject will be dependent on the working out of tensions between adherents to differing versions and the generation of shared interests. It was from this group of teachers whose interests in providing challenge to the university bound students were closely aligned with the physics professors that the three committee members were selected. Approval of the emphases and boundaries of school subjects is never unanimous, and as the social, educational and scientific contexts shift with time, certain groups and individuals achieve greater or lesser success in promoting alternative versions of school physics. In a centralized system such as that in British Columbia, the curriculum prescriptions authorized by the state cannot be ignored in an examinable subject such as physics although there can be resistance. The change in economic conditions, coupled with the institutional framework of the schools, drew attention to the role of physics instruction in the schools.
