ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the historical and policy background to majority-minority relations in Western Thrace in general and with regards to education in particular. It describes the main aspects of this educational intervention. The chapter discusses how the educational reform project affected social change in the field of minority education, by highlighting quantitative and qualitative changes that have occurred since its inception. It also provides illuminative examples that illustrate pupils, teachers and parent's engagement in dialogic practices. The chapter argues that the way the minority's diversity is currently accommodated does not assure equality of respect and equal opportunities for all its members. The design and implementation of minority education has been linked to the trials and tribulations the Muslim minority experienced. On the basis of the Treaty of Lausanne and Greco-Turkish Cultural Protocols, minority schools have dual-medium curricula. The minority, largely agrarian and poor, despite trends towards modernization, has remained largely deeply traditional, patriarchal and religious.
