The essential argument made in this paper is that contact in the South African school is structured around fundamentally asymmetric relations of "knowing" between groups. Three distinct periods are delineated, the first of which (1976-1990) contained the most substantial ideas and contributions to debates and actual steps taken with respect to social difference. The subsequent two periods (1990-1994 and 1994-present) failed to draw on the experience acquired during the first period. The impact of these developments has been to draw politically and culturally weaker groups into the world of the dominant, but in a consistently subordinate position. Significantly, however, distinct repertoires of "knowing," shaped by the political and social conjuncture, developed at different times. The discussion draws attention to problems with the appropriation of hegemonic forms of multiculturalism--assimilation--for explaining how contact and "knowing" are managed in the South African school.