Jewish and Arab kindergarten teachers cope with the challenges of encountering the other in Israel: ‘My Diverse Kindergarten’

ABSTRACT

Our article explores the challenges that faced Jewish and Arab kindergarten teachers, and their different ways of coping with those challenges, during the implementation of the programme ‘My Diverse Kindergarten’ in three mixed cities in Israel. The programme aimed at reducing prejudices and improving the relationship between Jews and Arabs in these cities. Based on data from a qualitative study, including interviews with Arab and Jewish kindergarten teachers, we examined the challenges related to the encounter with the other, and identified a variety of coping patterns, mostly related to the ethnic and professional identities of the kindergarten teachers. Our discussion relates to some of the factors that enabled the success of the programme in achieving its purpose.

KEYWORDS:

• Kindergarten teachers
• contact intervention programme
• Arab–Jewish relations in Israel
• ethnic-national identity
• professional identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 At first, we planned to interview each kindergarten teacher twice a year. We started with Lilian but for technical reasons we were unable to continue with others, therefore we decided to conduct interviews once after the end of each school year.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Afnan Masarwah Srour

Dr. Afnan Masarwah Srour, the head of the early childhood department at the David Yellin Academic Collage of Education in Jerusalem. A lecturer and pedagogical supervisor at the early childhood department. Her research is focused in the intersection between Gender, Religion and Knowledge, early childhood intervention programmes and development programmes for women.

Michael Sternberg

Dr. Michael Sternberg has a PhD in Conflict Management and Resolution from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel; he has Masters’ degrees in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies from Novi Sad University, Serbia, and in Sociology and Social Anthropology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a post-doctoral fellow at the Martin Springer Center for Conflict Studies at Ben-Gurion University. His areas of study are on personal and collective coping resources during societal crisis, peace education, and the contribution of action research to social transformation initiatives. He teaches graduate courses at the Department of Education and the Department of Conflict Management and Resolution at Ben Gurion University.

Samar Aldinah

Samar Aldinah is a lecturer and pedagogical instructor in the Kindergarten Training Program at Kaye Academic College. PhD. Student in the Department of Education at Ben-Gurion University under the supervision of Prof. Shifra Sagy and Prof. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder. My current research examines how we can advance tolerance among Israeli Jewish and Arab children, evaluating an intervention in a mixed city. I’m interested in exploring social categorization and attitudes among children, as well as interventions for reducing intergroup bias in early childhood in majority and minority groups.

Talee Ziv

Dr. Talee Ziv is a developmental psychologist and researcher in the Martin Springer Center for Conflict Studies at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. She received her PhD from Harvard University followed by a postdoctoral position at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on social-cognitive and moral development in infancy and early childhood. She currently leads the implementation and evaluation of the educational initiative ‘My Diverse Kindergarten’, an intervention in Jewish and Arab kindergartens that applies lab-based research to real-world settings in order to achieve greater tolerance between social groups.

Mahmud Dawud

Mahmud Dawud is a Clinical & Educational Psychologist. A psychologist at the medical center ‘Meuhedet’ and’ Maccabi’. PhD student in the Department of Education. Ben Gurion University. My current research is encountering the other in early childhood: An empirical assessment of exposure to an educational figure from a different national community on children and parent’s attitudes and perceptions.

Shifra Sagy

Shifra Sagy is professor emerita of psychology in the Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Formerly the head of the Department of Education and the Educational Psychology Program, she was the founding director of a multidisciplinary graduate programme for conflict management and resolution. She currently heads the Martin-Springer Center for Conflict Studies. She is among the pioneers and leaders in Israel and worldwide of the salutogenic approach that emphasizes coping resources and assets in explaining well-being and health. She is also involved in studies in political psychology concerning the historical and political consciousness among children, adolescents, and adults. She has published many empirical and theoretical articles in a variety of professional journals in USA, Europe, and Israel. Sagy has been extensively involved in peace education in the Palestinian – Israeli context at all levels: teaching, lecturing, writing, researching, participating, and initiating dialogue workshops.