Understanding the Past, Navigating the Future: Theorizing a Way Forward for Mindanao

Abstract

This chapter turns from the historical narrative of the nexus of education and ethno-religious conflict in Muslim Mindanao to a philosophical analysis of alternative theoretical frameworks that might point to ways of doing education in Muslim Mindanao—and, by implication, other situations of ethno-religious conflict—that respect and preserve religious identity while enhancing students’ prospects for socioeconomic success in the modern world. It argues that the postcolonial theory framing the critical historical analysis of the preceding chapters is inadequate to this task. It also examines and critiques pragmatism, which inspired a highly sophisticated and influential philosophy of education responding to the achievement of modern science and the imperatives of democratic society, but which also largely ignored the continuing salience of religious identity.