Schooling, Knowledge, and Power: Social Transformation in the Solomon Islands

Abstract

Western schooling has been a major agent of social change in the Pacific islands for over a century. We examine planned and unplanned social transformations associated with Western‐style schooling in one Pacific society: the Solomon Islands. Indigenous and introduced models of education are briefly described, including the social distribution of access of schooling, competing theories of education and knowledge, and the role of schooling in maintaining and changing power relations in Solomon Island society. We find that transformations are not only manifested at the societal level, but also enacted in everyday educational settings.