Using ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews, the researcher intended to study the network of relations among professional staffs of two comprehensive secondary schools in order to hypothesize about the effects of those networks on the curriculum. Neither school had a fixed four-year curriculum and both stressed responsiveness to students, which allowed teachers almost absolute control in planning course content. This situation resulted in isolated, autonomous teachers who created their own egocentric fields of influence in the classroom. A second, equally egocentric field was composed of teachers and students who responded to the same approach. A set of relations an individual teacher may have built with other staff members to protect his or her personal approach or to enrich his or her life formed a third field. The implications of the study are that too much autonomy among teachers may result in reduced effort and the failure to provide, both academically and socially, the rudiments of an education for poorly motivated students. (Author/WD)