Religious Education and Educational Policies: An Example from the History of Education in Western Thrace, Greece

This chapter deals with the pedagogical challenges that educational communities of diverse religious pose on educational policy, for their effective pedagogical management. The chapter uses the educational policy of Greece for the Muslim minority of Western Thrace as an example. In particular, the initiatives of Greek educational policy at a specific moment in the history of Greek education are described through a comparative study of the 1958 Curriculum for Muslim minority schools and the corresponding Curriculum and instructions “for the teaching of subjects in primary schools” of D. Petrides for the same period of time for non-minority schools. The main focus of the chapter is to highlight the historical roots of the social problems and opportunities created today by globalization with the example of religious diversity faced by local as well as global educational systems. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of historical knowledge in overcoming contemporary social problems both locally and globally through the systematic study of the example of the educational management of the Muslim minority in Western Thrace.