This third issue of the Institute of Education Annual addresses themes related to the curriculum, the school context, and gender. The first article is an adaptation of a paper presented by Ruby King at the Forum on Education: Violence in Our Schools, sponsored by the School of Education, UWI, Mona. In examining the role of the school and society in combating violence, King begins with a historical look at violence in Jamaican society at the time when the first elementary schools were established. She argues that in an earlier time, there was less violence in schools as measured by degree of vandalism, and this can be explained by the closer relationship between the community and the school. Increased vandalism in today's schools can be seen as symptomatic of the community's disaffection with schools. It can be concluded that "elements in the society no longer view the school as contributing to their progress in life”. Schools of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries made a consistent effort to inculcate moral values and attitudes in students. Aspects of the formal curriculum were designed to instill appropriate attitudes and values in students which were expected to curb antisocial behaviour. There is evidence, however, that this approach to behavioural change did not always work.