Introduction

The problematic of education, along with its function as a factor of development, is considered as one of the major challenges that confronts different human societies in general and the Muslim ones in particular. This is an undeniable truth, for the consensus, which was reached many centuries ago on the necessity of education as an instrument of any expected progress, has been reinforced since the 1980's by another consensus on the idea that in the twenty first century -the age of globalisation and technology- the future of societies will somehow depend on the way they will educate their younger generations. Education, which constitutes in its cultural sense the mirror of the life of people and the state of their society and in its deeper sense the fundamental instrument of development and progress, has become one of the major social problems in the recent years. If the majority of developed countries has given enough attention to this problem, the majority of Muslim societies are still unaware of it and its various bad effects (Ahrchaou, 1998). But what kind of education are we talking about here ?

Education is usually thought of as a combination of interactions, practices and influences meant for teaching a child values and behaviours and accustom him to the manners and traditions of his society. Education consists of the various social traditions and values, the life patterns and ways of thinking that are not transmitted to the child in a hereditary manner, but through cultural influence. This means that, from his birth, a child is in need of the instruction which helps him acquire the cultural instruments necessary for his normalisation and social integration. Since it is a space where warmth, care and living conditions are provided, the family naturally constitutes the environment which strongly influences a child's growth and the development of his personality. It is in this sense that we can talk about family education. But where does parental education stand within this framework ? And how does it relate to family education ?

Parental education is often reduced to family education in such a manner that the two terms are used interchangeably. This is false, however, because parental education is no more than a fundamental component or variable that is part of the numerous variables which go into the making of family education, whose role in bringing up a child is of paramount importance. The family, whose components may increase and vary to include its different members, its residential spaces, the mediums of its thinking and distraction, along with its arrays of values and cultural elements, may also cover not only the educational practices it resorts to in bringing up its children but also the intervention of the parents in the education of their offspring, hence its inclusion of parental education (During 1995, Pourtois 1989). Parental education is usually summed up as the parent's direct dealings with the child, precisely the practices which determine their educational activity vis-à-vis the latter. It consists in the daily practices of the parents, behavioural attitude toward the child so as to train him, guide him and supply him with all kinds of information, skills, models, conducts, values and tendencies necessary for the confrontation of life problems in all its aspects and in different domains. Therefore, it is not a synonym of family education or social upbringing or parental tendencies, as it is corroborated by the inaccuracy of some Arab studies (Hassan 1970, Kafani 1980, Al Korchi 1986, Abdelfettah 1992, Ibrahim 1978). Though it partakes of social upbringing as a fundamental variable and covers parental tendencies as a wider framework, it cannot, however, be reduced to either terms. It essentially amounts to the existence of an educational relationship between a child and his parents reflected in well-defined practices that take the form of a series of methods and treatments the latter resort to in the various situations that the child faces whether inside or outside home.

Thus, like every type of education, parental education is a practice that is governed by a series of principles and bases, guided by a number of objectives and goals, determined by certain conditions and restrictions, achieved through recourse to some methods and mechanisms, and confronted by a specimen of problems and obstacles. Though this definition shows it as a complex domain which requires an interdisciplinary approach (mainly consisting of psychology, sociology, pedagogy, economics and the law), parental education, from the perspective of this study, refers to an educational practice that has some psychological frame of reference fully determined by the type of theory of child-psychology that the parents adhere to. This theory consists, on the one hand, in  all the conceptions and ideas the parents have about a child's growth, his abilities, capacities, needs, desires and reactions and, on the other hand, in the various educational activities of the parents in relation to the child.

It is within the framework of this exclusively psychological perspective that I am going to examine the problematic of "parental education", as it is practised in our Muslim countries through an objective investigation of the three following, major issues : the question of characteristics and constituents, that of problems and hindrances, and finally that of suggestions and solutions. Before embarking on this study, however, I should mention that it is conditioned by three major limits :

- The first limit : of course, I do not believe that a study of this size will cover all the problems related to parental education in the Muslim world. I hope that it will open the ground for further studies for which the ISESCO can provide the necessary conditions so as to approach this problematic more scientifically and examine its components and aspects more exhaustively.

- The second limit : it would certainly be mere fancy to think of the possibility of an exhaustive  analysis of all the aspects and reality of the parents' educational practices in the Muslim world. The abundance of these practices and the richness of its interactions make it impossible to carry out such an endeavour. Therefore, my ambition in this study consists only in pointing out the outstanding features, identifying the major symptoms and defining the significant indicators which will help me have a virtual picture of the constituents of these practices, the problems associated with them and their possible solutions.

- The third limit : I should draw the attention of the reader to the fact that my approach to parental education in Muslim countries is not shaped by any moralising or personal aim which serves a specific school or philosophy. What I am aiming at here is to be objective in my consideration of parental, educational practices as daily occurrences and facts that we all witness and live with. For, in my opinion, the problem of education does not consist only in the philosophical, political or social preferences but also in the amount of objectivity with which we approach the different influences resulting from the psychological and social determinants that should never be justified only by personal principles and perceptions.