ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. This book provides the first mapping exercise of education in the disputed territories, and explores its relationship with identity and ethno-politics. It examines the purpose of education, exploring the significance of cultural reproduction, and investigates the links between demands for ethnically specific education and the wider political, and often violent, contestation over the territory. In the fragile ethno-political environment of the disputed territories, the way in which the education system manages ethnic diversity is crucial. Education became one of the group's key areas of intervention, used to modify behaviour, further its recruitment base and indoctrinate a new generation of citizens loyal to the Caliphate dream. As education policy has reflected, and reacted to, national fragility and conflict in the past, education today will be influenced by the current crisis. Finally, this chapter states Iraq providing a vivid illustration of the powerful role of education in identity-based conflicts.