ABSTRACT
In light of the humanitarian crisis and the diasporic movement of refugees into Europe, teachers are called on to address shortcomings concerning the treatment of poor ethnic minority students. Evidence, upon which the investigation was based, consisted in part of an investigation into the phenomenon of teachers’ disempowerment in Cypriot primary schools, by using tools from the philosophy of critical realism. The philosophy of critical realism underlabours for social science in that it clarifies the theoretical concepts surrounding the philosophy of science, such as transcending the ontology-epistemology divide. Underlabouring for social science facilitates and advances empirical educational research. Critical realism focuses on the differentiation of the world and of all social phenomena between closed and open systems. The Cyprus education system was segregated along ethnic lines long before the conflict began and the physical separation of the several communities.
