‘In your face’ democracy: education for belonging and its challenges in Israel

Abstract

This article will juxtapose the goals and implications of two pedagogical programmes that promote education for belonging in Israel. Representing the official knowledge of the Ministry of Education, the first is the ‘100 Concepts in Heritage, Zionism and Democracy’ curriculum. The second, which embodies the counter knowledge produced and disseminated by Arab civil society organizations, is entitled ‘Identity and Belonging: The Basic Concepts Project for Arab Pupils’. The article grapples with the attempts of Israel to impose a state‐standardized version of education for belonging, as well as the active resistance to this by Arab civil society in Israel which provides an alternative one. The article argues that the concepts included in the curriculum posed by Arab civil society, albeit controversial and challenging to the very definition of Israel as both a Jewish nation state and a democracy, should be considered an act of citizenship, rather than a sign of radicalization and separatism. Indeed, the alternative curriculum constitutes a political and ethical act of ‘in your face’ democracy, which is deeply confrontational and interruptive. The paper is organized into three sections. The first explicates the politics of recognition as a theoretical framework for this study. The second unit presents both curricula and compares and contrasts the two. The third and final section offers concluding thoughts regarding the interplay of the rival Palestinian and Israeli historiographies in the struggle over canonizing and standardizing a collective narrative through the Israeli education system.

De-coupling or remaining closely coupled to ‘home’: educational strategies around identity-making and advantage of Israeli global middle-class families in London

“…Defined as intractable (Canetti, Elad-Strenger, Lavi, Guy, & Bar-Tal, 2015), the conflict has contributed to a highly politicised and vehemently debated cleavage within Israeli society. The conflict has divided the political Left from the Right, highlighted differences between the country's centre and periphery, between Jews originating from Western countries, and those from Eastern Europe, Asia and North Africa, as well as between the religious and secular populations (Agbaria, Mustafa, & Jabareen, 2015;Gavison, 1999;Kimmerling, 2001).…”

Demographic, Social-Emotional and Educational Aspects of Specific and Generalized Social Anxiety Subtypes Among Palestinian Arab Minority Student Teachers in Israel

“…In Arab society, the teaching method does not encourage critical and independent thinking patterns. In addition, the study suggests that, in Arab society, schools have the expectation that the Arab student should receive assistance from teachers in coping with learning difficulties (Agbaria, Mustafa, & Jabreen, 2015;Gharrah, 2016). These characteristics become a double obstacle in higher education -once in the study itself, when the nature of the learning in the schools does not prepare the Arab student for the skills required in the higher studies, and once again with the expectations of the students and the lecturers (Arar, 2016).…”

Agents of the nation-state or transformative intellectuals? Exploring the conflicting roles of civics teachers in Israel

“…For example, the citizenship and history curricula promote a Jewish-Israeli narrative and identity (Bar-Tal, 1998;Firer, 1998;Al-Haj, 2005;Pinson, 2007b;2013) while omitting Palestinian and Arab identities, culture and narratives (Pinson, 2007a(Pinson, , 2008Agbaria, 2011;. The lack of recognition of Palestinians in Israel as a collective with a common identity and heritage stands in stark contrast with the strong emphasis on the heritage of the Jewish people (Abu-Saad, 2004;Ichilov, 2008;Agbaria et al, 2015). These problems have been recognized in the old as well as in the new civics textbook, yet the old textbook did offer a space to discuss alternative perspectives, narratives and identities, allowing students to develop their own stance after having examined different points of view.…”