A participant-observation study was carried out of a centre providing intensive English instruction for newly arrived, migrant adolescents. This study was conducted during a period of fifteen months from late in 1978 to the end of 1979, by which time the Intensive Language Unit had been operating for three and a half years. Part of the study traced the establishment of the Unit as an independent body within the A.C.T. secondary education system. This involved an examination of the process by which the Unit was set up in 1976, and of the context in preceding years of general developments in migrant education throughout Australia and, in particular, those occurring in the A.C.T. Data collected during 1979 dealt with this background and also with the Unit's operation and role in the A.C.T. in 1979. Some of this data was documentary evidence but a considerable part consisted of interview material obtained from key individuals associated with the Unit. From this material was gained an understanding of their perceptions and actions in the establishment and operation of the new institution. Analysis of the data indicated a distinct pattern of continuity in the first years of the Unit's existence. It became apparent that this continuity had been maintained by several factors. These were the existence, from the start, of a clearly defined rationale and the presence at the Unit of a selected group of dedicated teachers who strongly supported it. The outcome was that in 1979 the rationale had become entrenched to such an extent that Unit teachers were prepared to protect the Unit's threatened integrity with considerable effort. It was possible to relate these features of the Unit to the general context in which it emerged. This study revealed how, in the early 1970's, increasing awareness of the inadequacy of migrant education as well as the significant roles of the Schools Commission and the individual who set up the Unit, produced a situation in which the new centre developed its distinctive features which still existed at the end of 1979. A general overview was developed of how a new institution with a high degree of autonomy was introduced into an existing system, of the advantages and difficulties which resulted, and how it was able to maintain its independence and particular character during the early years of its existence.

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