The purpose of this paper is to initiate an inquiry into a currently "fashionable" educational phenomenon presently referred to as "non-formal education." It is hoped that the paradigm resented will provide yet another interpretive perspective by which we can more fully understand the consequences of this educational phenomenon. It is a major contention of this paper that a more conceptually rigorous approach will enable us to understand better how non-formal education might contribute to or inhibit social change and development in societies undergoing rapid modernization.