Charting a Third Way in Minority Education: Transformative Community in the Old Order Mennonite Church of Kreider County

Minority responses to mainstream schooling have been characterized as ranging from assimilation to resistance. Based on a three-year ethnographic study, this article suggests that such a continuum is inadequate for interpreting the longevity and vibrancy of an Old Order Mennonite community. This durability can be attributed to a "third way" in minority education: transformative community, or the pursuit of an ideal as the central dynamic of community life and personal identity. This process is most powerfully realized when such a community has control over its own schooling.