Michael Byram

Minority Education and Ethnic Survival Michael Byram

This book is a study of the relationship between the education system of a minority and its ethnic identity. The minority in question has often been referred to as a model of good practice for other indigenous European minorities, because of the treatment it receives at the hands of the majority, particularly with regard to support for its schools. It is the German minority in Denmark, a group which has full recognition by the Danish state and financial support for its institutions. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork in one of the minority's schools. After an introduction to the contemporary history of the minority, the book describes the role of the school system in the maintenance of the group's identity. Focusing particularly on the experience of school-leavers, the study reveals how the school has influenced their perception of their own identity and of their relationships with the majority's economic and cultural institutions. By discussing the minority's language and curriculum policies for its schools and relating them to the whole minority's culture and language, the author demonstrates that the crucial factor in the maintenance of ethnic identity is the education process. This leads to analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of minority education for the individual pupil who has to make his or her way in majority society. The author concludes with an account of the relationship between researcher and researched and of the way in which his academic research became part of the minority's debate about how its schools should develop.