Journal of Educational Sciences > Volume 2, No. 2, 1990

Minority Education Between Theory and Practice / Mohammed Sh. Khateeb

When dealing with education for minorities as a major field of educational discipline we mean to refer the term to the condition of being inferior or subordinate. Most of the time students who are dis advantaged by differences of culture, language and religion are considered to be the theme of minority education problems. Such students are usually distanced from the sources of power and status in the societies they live in. Also in discussing minority education for a certain group such as Muslim minorities we cannot ignore its connections to other minority group problems. The forms of minority education activities differ from one country to another. in fact, they may differ within one particular country. In the meantime, when searching for the way minorities are educated we see different atmospheres for such minorities because of political or religious behavioral activities. We can also recognize that cultural. linguistic, psychological and sociological difficulties are closely connected despite the fact that minority groups are growing in number and position in some cases in the world. In this article, the researcher has tried to define the terms “minority" and "minority education“ from the standpoint of different cases he presented with some concentration on Muslim minorities, and the way they are treated. Meanwhile the researcher also tried to compare and analyse the ability of the paradigms he presented to assimilate minorities within its context from the point view of human rights and equality which are major components of democracy. The reason for this is that he wanted to give some insights to those interested in solving or helping to solve Muslim minority problems, and applying such problems to discussion and research.