This book theorizes a philosophical framework for educational policy and practice in the
southern Philippines where decades of religious and political conflict between a minority
Muslim community and the Philippine state has plagued the educational and economic development
of the region. It offers a critical historical and ethnographic analysis of a century of failed
attempts under successive U.S. colonial and independent Philippine governments to deploy
education as a tool to mitigate the conflict and assimilate the Muslim minority into the
mainstream of Philippine society and examines recent efforts to integrate state and Islamic
education before proposing a philosophy of prophetic pragmatism as a more promising framework
for educational policy and practice that respects the religious identity and fosters the
educational development of Muslim Filipinos. It represents a timely contribution to the search
for educational policies and practices more responsive to the needs and religious identities of
Muslim communities emerging from conflict not only in the southern Philippines but in other
international contexts as well.
