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This qualitative article examines the making of a distinct Christian identity through confessional teaching of Christianity. As there had been very little empirical research on teachers of religious education and none on teaching Christianity in Israel, this pioneering paper investigates the teachers' views on their goals and challenges, while analysing how Christian identity is constructed, reworked and negotiated in their practice. In doing so, the article reflects on the meaning and implications of two moods of being a Christian in Israel: being a member of a Christian minority within the Arab minority in Israel (minority within minority), and being a member of a Christian minority of the Muslim and the Jewish majorities in Israel (minority of two majorities). The article examines how teachers educate for both moods and ponders over the sociopolitical interests served by the teachers in religious education.

This article discusses the case study of a programme for Jewish and Palestinian educators in Israel and our initial insights into the outcome of the initiative. The programme aims to address racism, segregation, and prejudice and to support educators to teach culture and tradition in a more humanistic, inclusive, and critical way. To achieve this, it draws on inter-religious and intercultural dialogue. We will discuss how this method is rooted in both Judaism and Islam thus paving the way for participants to not only develop a better understanding of their own but also of others' tradition. Importantly, it also highlights the interrelations of these traditions, which can contribute to the development of a shared society.

This article discusses a qualitative case study that investigated the micropolitical processes inside an Arab junior high school in Israel during the enactment of the New Horizon reform. Our analysis focuses on how the school's educational staff interprets and translates the reform into practice, how their professional identities have developed along this process and on the role of their background as members of the Arab-Palestinian community. We found the principal and teachers draw on both collaborative and conflict-promoting strategies to defend their interests. The study demonstrated the importance of micropolitical considerations and local contexts for macropolitical reforms.

Over the past few years, the civics curriculum for Israeli high-schools has become the centre of a heated political debate. Following this debate, in May 2016 a revised official textbook was introduced. This paper draws on an in-depth analysis of the revised official textbook, comparing it to the previous official textbook published in 2000. The analysis focuses on the discursive changes that took place regarding the ways in which the revised textbook conceptualises Israeli citizenship. A particular focus is placed on how the revised version of the official textbook often prioritises the ethno-national model of the nation state over and above the commitment to democratic values, including minority rights. The main argument of this paper is that these changes are a reflection of the penetration of a neo-Zionist discourse into the civics curriculum.

This article examines the involvement of civil society organizations in human rights education (HRE) in Israel. Focussing on the educational programs of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), as a qualitative instrumental case study, this article examines the conceptions of good citizenship embedded in these programs. Specifically, the article analyzes the educational programs' goals, content, targeted populations, and practices. The analysis revealed that ACRI's HRE model reflect four ideal types of citizens: citizen of a democratic liberal state, citizen of a participatory polity, citizen of an ethical profession, and citizen of an empowered community. These constitute a multilayered human rights discourse that enables ACRI to engage differentially with various sectors and populations, while still remaining faithful to the ethno-national parameters of a Jewish and democratic state political framework.

This study examines citizenship education in Israel from the point of view of Arab teachers, as they rework and negotiate the content and boundaries of their Israeli citizenship. Specifically, the paper studies how teachers of citizenship education in Arab high schools in Israel perceive their sociopolitical reality, how they respond to it in their classrooms, and how they conceptualize Israeli citizenship for their pupils. In doing so, the paper ponders the pedagogical strategies and emphases of these teachers, as they mediate the citizenship education curriculum, with its heavy emphasis on the ethno-national character of Israel, to their Arab pupils.

The purpose of this paper is to problematize the place of religious authority in politics and education. Specifically, this essay highlights the role of religious authority in establishing a moral order that values compliance and conformity at the expense of liberty and critique. In doing so, the essay reflects on Israeli politics and Islamic political thought. Pondering on both, the essay explains how the authority conferred through the use of religious language creates a condition of hyper-solidarity. Under conditions of hyper-solidarity, religious authority becomes pervasive, permeating, and more entrenched and difficult to challenge. It becomes increasingly difficult to be critical, because to criticize is to forgo that hyper-solidarity, and to assume a position of exteriority. Therefore, obedience becomes a choice and a position taken in favor of stability, consistency, and continuity of the group.

This essay discusses the role of religion as a central facet when researching the emerging social group -- the global middle class (GMC). It is argued here that religion is a particularly relevant feature for the constitution of this social group because of the GMC's transnational and cosmopolitan character. In this essay, I will draw on several examples focused on Islamic education provision in Western, pre-dominantly Christian societies to illustrate why and how religion should become critical to our study of the GMC. The essay's central argument is that there remains a gap in research related to the role of religion in the making and practising of the GMC as a social group. I conclude by proposing a future research agenda that addresses the intersections of religion, education, and the GMC on an individual, national, and global level.

Focusing on education policy and politics in Israel, this essay examines how ethnic segregation is established and sheds light on the latest curricular developments that place a heavy emphasis on Jewish identity. The first part of the paper underscores the rising influence of the radical right in Israel and it's political theology. The second part presents the Apartheid education in South Africa. In doing so, this part underscores the roles of segregation and religion in establishing a justificatory system that legitimises racial superiority and presents Apartheid education as 'civilising' and 'modernising'. In the third part, the paper discusses how segregation and religious-ethnonationalism make up an apartheid-like reality in Israel, focusing on recent curricular policies. The final part presents concluding thoughts on racism and colonialism.

This paper underlines three foundations upon which the current condition of the Israeli education system is predicated. These are: (a) the separation between Palestinians and Jews in the Israeli education system and isolating both from any significant contact; (b) endorsing a strong ethno-religious ethos and narratives that widen the chasm between the Jewish "us" and the Palestinian "them"; and (c) shaping education for the Palestinians in Israel as a highly standardized and de-contextualized endeavor that excludes ideology and politics, which are seen as irrelevant to good professionalism, while substantiating and thickening the ideological education in the Jewish education system in line with the right political agenda. In doing so, this paper contextualizes these foundations in the recent developments of Israeli politics. Particularly, the paper associates these foundations with the rise of the extreme right politics in Israel, arguing that these, taken together, serve the state's efforts to continue preserving its excluding ethnocentric political regime and controlling the Arab Palestinian education in Israel under conditions of subordination and inequality.

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.

Focusing on recent developments in the field of education, this article grapples with the educational activism of Arab civil society in Israel. Specifically, it presents a case study of a recent initiative to establish an independent Arab Pedagogical Council (APC). I argue that this initiative, although controversial and challenging to the very definition of Israel as both a Jewish nation-state and a democracy, should be considered to be an act of citizenship, rather than a sign of radicalization and separatism. The initiative to establish the APC is a political and ethical act, through which Arab civil society organizations and activists in Israel constitute themselves as independent political actors, citizens, and claimants of rights, entitlements, and responsibilities for the quality of life and future of the Palestinians in Israel.

Similar to other national contexts, in Israel since the 1980s we have witnessed the emergence of neo-liberal policies in education. However, very little attention has been given to the ways in which they affect the school level and even less attention has been given to the impact of these policy changes on Arab schools in Israel. This article offers a micro-politic policy analysis of the ways in which neo-liberal discourses and practices of selection are being interpreted and acted upon in one Arab high school in Israel as a unique example of minority education. It also examines the interplay between these policy changes and other discursive fields within which Arab schools operate, such as its marginalisation. In light of neo-liberal discursive shifts in education policy in Israel, this article revisits the control-empowerment explanation of the position of the Arab education system in Israel.

This article examines the educational activism of two Arab civil organizations in Israel: the Follow-Up Committee on Arab Education (FUCAE) and the Eqraa Association (Eqraa). On the one hand, it explores the possibilities and limitations of the involvement of the FUCAE in the state's Arab education system, as a secular organization that is heavily engaged in the contentious identity politics of the Arab minority in Israel. On the other hand, it reflects on the competing yet complementary roles played by Eqraa vis-à-vis the state in the field of education, as a faith-based organization that has been operating its own independent successful initiatives in education. More specifically, this article compares the goals, strategies, activities, and sources of funding of these two organizations, thus providing insights on the role of civil society organizations, either secular or religious, on Palestinian identity formation and political mobilization in Israel. Additionally, it clarifies the meaning and characteristics of Islamic entrepreneurship and activism in education.

This article explores the nexus between pre-service teacher education polices and the supply and demand of minority teachers. It problematizes the recent reports on teacher shortages in Israel, which tend to focus on the shortage of Jewish teachers while dealing with the surplus of Arab teachers only tangentially. Specifically, this article examines how teacher education policy in Israel generates a surplus supply of Arab teachers through 3 mechanisms: (a) the disregard for the cultural needs of Arab teachers and their exclusion from policymaking circles; (b) the Ministry of Education's budgeting criteria, which entice colleges to enroll more Arab students, especially when the enrollment of Jewish students is in decline; and (c) the admission policies of teacher education colleges, which contribute to the overrepresentation of Arab students in these colleges and allow the enrollment of students above the quota approved annually by the Ministry of Education. (Contains 2 tables and 2 footnotes.)

This study aims to better understand the social ecology of infant care (IC) as experienced and perceived by mothers living in a deprived Arab Bedouin community in Israel, where children's health indicators are poor. We used the integrative model of Garcia Coll et al. (Garcia Coll C, Lamberty G, Jenkins R "et al." An integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. "Child Dev" 1996; 67: 1891-914) and constructs of the Health Beliefs Model as a study framework for conducting focus groups with 106 mothers in 2007. Results show that mothers believe IC and infant well-being are high priorities. However, distal barriers, including land disputes, a transition from herding to low-paid labor and lifestyle changes have interacted with proximal barriers in Bedouin families, including poor living conditions, poverty and weakened familial relations to inhibit adequate IC practices. Specifically, distal and proximal barriers affect IC directly (e.g. lack of nearby clinics) or indirectly (mothers' self-efficacies) to limit mothers' choices and control over IC, thereby posing threats to infant health. Our findings demonstrate the importance of understanding the complexity of social context in shaping IC among marginalized minority mothers and suggest new ground for addressing proximal and distal barriers through policy interventions. Without contending with both, interventions to strengthen mothers' self-efficacy will have limited success in improving the environment of IC and, consequently, infant health.

Despite the abundance of studies on globalization in educational research, globalization is often approached as a monolithic and standardized concept. Focusing on the social studies education in the USA, this study explores how the various metaphors through which globalization is framed embrace particular perspectives on how to conceive and educate about globalization. Specifically, this study discusses seven conceptual metaphors: the global as a place, time, container, spectacle, person, threat, and as a force of nature. In doing so, it illustrates how globalization is predominately rendered as an inclusive structure, a disembedded process, and as a permanent threat. The different metaphors, this paper argues, fulfill a twofold role. First, they define a domain of their own, the global domain, creating a distinctive global viewpoint on human agency and social change. Second, these metaphors also release a political imagination structured around particular expectations of what exactly the global means and does.

The scholarship nexus between education and globalization provides limited insights into how global education has been framed and rendered. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it seeks a better understanding of the nature of the mission of preparing citizens for the global age and what it entails in the context of learning and teaching social studies in the United States. Second, it aims at describing and characterizing the discourse community of social studies education as it relates to educating about and for globalization. Specifically, this article asks: What educational proposals are suggested in this discourse to prepare the students to meet the demands of globalization? What perspectives, skills, and values are emphasized? And what we can learn from this discourse's selectivity of content and emphasis? All in all, the article reveals the enclosure of global education within the language and practices of multicultural education. (Contains 2 tables.)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dominant positions in the debates on globalization in American social studies education. Specifically, the paper illustrates that, first, globalization is conceived of as more of an unprecedented new age and less of a historical development. Second, it is conceived of as more of a natural process and less as an ideological project. All in all, this paper argues that globalization should be approached as a historic and discursive condition in the field of social studies education. To do so, educators should include more skeptical perspectives and critical voices about globalization. Also, they need to approach the vocabulary used to frame globalization discursively, rather than as an objective fact. The paper contends that the different positions taken in the debates on globalization are part and parcel of the social imaginary of globalization. The paper has ramifications not only for American social studies education but also for related subjects such as civics and citizenship education elsewhere. (Contains 1 table.)

The Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel - some 20% of the country's citizens - constitute both a substantial national minority and an indigenous minority. Nevertheless, the Arab education system does not reflect basic international minority rights standards; it is characterized by unequal allocation of state resources, lack of recognition of the Arab-Palestinian minority's cultural needs and marginalization of Arab leadership in policy decision-making. This stands in stark contradiction to international law which provides for equality in educational outputs and financial allocations, the right to shape one's identity and to establish educational priorities for oneself and one's community and, no less importantly, minorities' right to manage their own education system. Although Israel has ratified most relevant conventions this article argues that it has yet to enshrine or apply such standards in domestic legislation or practice. Following an analysis of educational autonomy for the Arab Palestinian minority through the lens of international and domestic legal standards, the article highlights Palestinian civil society initiatives seeking to promote educational autonomy. In line with suggestions for reform promoted by the community and taking into account current legal standards, the article will conclude with a series of recommendations intended to achieve this aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]