ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on social inequality and education in modern society, and the possibilities for education to lessen the related problems. It examines three forms of inequality that are widespread in current global society: aboriginal societies in modern industrial states, long-established communities that have been denied full status, and differences arising from recent population migrations. Education may be seen partly as a transmission of techniques that are useful for survival, but it is also the creation and perpetuation of social identity, of myths selected from the facts or even fabricated to enable people to endure and to create outstanding civilizations. Technical and social education is both present in language instruction and history, music and even in cooking. An important contribution to equal opportunity among complex populations may come from teacher education. The most basic approach would examine the extent to which recruitment attracts teachers who would be acceptable even inspirational to the minority communities.
