The thesis concerns the relationship between the educational system and society. The research question is whether the educational system has the ability to provoke changes in society or whether it can only reflect changes that occur outside the institution. The aim of the work is to create a theoretical framework for further research on educational issues while answering the question from different sociological perspectives. The main sociologists covered in the work are Bowles and Gintis, Illich, Bourdieu and Passeron, Bernstein, and Apple, but tother authors are also presented to make the final picture more coherent. The choice of the authors is based on an attempt to represent a diversity of theoretical frameworks and possible answers. The results show that in spite of different theoretical backgrounds and viewpoints all given authors to a certain extent agree with the notion that the role of the educational system in society is secondary and that the institution of education cannot itself change the larger society. In relation to this issue, the authors are concerned with social and/or cultural reproduction in schools, emphasizing the different means through which reproduction occurs. Particular interconnections between the sociologists and the comparison of their theories are introduced in the Discussion part of the thesis.