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Social rejection during school years is a painful experience that has long-term effects, including development of negative attitudes toward minorities. Since social rejection is a complex experience, its effect in adulthood may be related to various background characteristics. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the effect of social rejection on negative attitudes toward minority groups in adulthood is related to group dominance and level of religiosity. Using a quantitative method, we administered a questionnaire that tested attitudes of 300 Israeli-born Jewish young people regarding Israeli Arabs and Jews of Ethiopian descent. In accordance with the hypotheses, social rejection was found as a predictor of negative attitudes toward minority groups only among members of the dominant group and those with high level of religiosity. The findings of the current study contribute to Social Dominance Theory and to the literature dealing with double marginality, since they demonstrate for the first time that social rejection at school combined with belonging to a dominant group (men and/or individuals of European descent) predicts a rejection of minority groups. However, social rejection at school combined with belonging to a non-dominant group (women and/or individuals of North African/Middle Eastern descent) predicts an acceptance of minority groups. Also, this research contributes to understanding the complex association between religiosity and prejudice, since it reveals that strong religious beliefs predict negative attitudes toward minority groups of the same religion only when they are combined with high level of social rejection at school., Author(s): Rotem Maor [sup.1] , Zehavit Gross [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.443049.e, 0000 0004 1784 5755, David Yellin College of Education, , Jerusalem, Israel (2) grid.22098.31, 0000 0004 1937 0503, [...]

In this phenomenological and qualitative study, we explored the experiences of six Palestinian-Arab Israeli Arabic teachers working at K-12 Jewish schools in Israel. We examine the three models of intergroup contact according to Brewer and Miller's theorisation -- category-based, differentiated, and personalised -- and their potential in explaining the interaction between the teachers and their students. The results of this inquiry illuminate how the teachers challenge their students' limited understanding of Islamic and Arab culture. In addition, they clarify the limitations of differentiation-based contact. This means that developing a positive relationship at the interpersonal level may not necessarily lead to a positive change at the intergroup level. We also found that most students to continued holding negative associations at the intergroup level. The findings shed the light on the struggles and dilemmas of minority ethnic teachers teaching in mainstream schools in a conflicted society. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed as well.

The aim of this qualitative research is to investigate how religious Zionist female adolescents (N = 40) construct and deconstruct their perceptions of democracy within the 'postsecular' Israeli society as a result of their intensive, religious Zionist education and socialization process promoted by Israeli schools which subscribe to this ideology within the Israeli state religious education system. This study found that female graduates from the national religious schools were influenced by political theology which was promoted through their schools' education and socialization processes. The findings highlighted the graduates' belief in the Jacobin communitarian approach to democracy; their focus on Liebman's concept of expansionism; and the challenges these approaches pose for maximal civic education in Israel.

The objective of this research was to analyse poetry written by Israeli high-school students during or after visiting Poland within the framework of Holocaust education. I describe first the stages of shaping the discourse of Holocaust memory in Israel, and of Holocaust education; the Holocaust's place in the world of young Israelis; and the journeys to Poland as reflected in research. Following that, I present the results of the research and an analysis of the findings. The paper will discuss how Israeli adolescents cope with a cultural trauma.

This qualitative study, examining seven communities in the globalized Asia Pacific area, aimed to investigate Jewish community attitudes toward Hebrew, their heritage language (HL), as influenced by the social environment. The main finding was that the "complex ecology" of context influences attitudes to Hebrew. The article delineates three major categories: expatriates in Asia, whose particularistic identity, including Hebrew, was strengthened; citizens, the majority native-born, in Australia and immigrants in New Zealand, whose Jewish identity was weakened. Findings demonstrate the importance of community contact, adding to understanding HL learning and linguistic distance between micro and macro elements in the sociolinguistic context.

This study examines relationships between community coherence and collective efficiency, and civic engagement, and the role of community resilience within such relationships, as seen in youth council frameworks. The participants included a group of 223 members of youth councils in Israel and a group of 568 non‐members, aged 14–18. The quantitative research tool comprised the Civic Engagement questionnaire; Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measure; Sence of Community Coherence Questionnaire; and Collective Efficacy Questionnaire. Positive relationships were found between community coherence and collective efficiency, and civic engagement for both groups, yet community resilience was only a mediating factor in this relationship for the non‐member group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instructional leadership can be explained as an educational leadership approach whereby the school principal engages in a wide range of activities aiming to improve teaching and learning for all students. A recent meta-analysis found that female principals engaged in more active instructional leadership than male counterparts. The current qualitative study sought to understand this gender gap. Data were collected through 59 semi-structured interviews with 36 female principals and 23 male principals from Israel. Data analysis was a four-stage process -- condensing, coding, categorizing, and theorizing. Findings showed that female participants, more frequently than their male counterparts, reported possessing two capabilities that are necessary for instructional leadership: (1) instructional expertise; (2) attention to relationships. Gender theories are employed to explain these findings. Practical implications and further research are discussed.

The aim of the research is to investigate a Montessori pedagogic approach, enabling a Jewish school to be part of the Chinese international-school system, while fostering Jewish identity. We conducted semistructured interviews with principals (2), teachers (8), parents (12), and students (10) and recorded class observations (8) over two visits. The analysis employed a grounded theory approach using a constant comparative method. The main result was that Montessori principles enabled the school to foster a strong particularistic Jewish identity for this situational minority while also developing a broad understanding of the host (Chinese) culture.

Considering possible criticisms of contact theory's validity for reducing negative attitudes in cases of intractable, complex intergroup conflict, this study examines the attitudes and intergroup relations of Israel's Jewish majority and Arab minority by comparing two university campuses that differed in Arab student enrollment rates and levels of religiosity. Participants were 100 Jewish and 100 Arab students. Blue University, with 20% Arab students, offered more opportunities for intergroup contacts than did the predominantly Jewish Orange University (1.9% Arab enrollment). As expected, findings showed more positive attitudes and relations between Jewish and Arab students at Blue University than at Orange University, thus corroborating the validity of contact theory in a major conflict situation. In operative terms, our findings suggest that in places wherein there exist intractable conflicts, it is worth establishing higher education campuses where students from the different groups can study together. Public Significance Statement: Our article shows that contact between conflict groups can decrease negative attitudes, not only towards individuals but also towards the group to which they belong. Meaning, contact theory remains valid, despite the criticism it has sustained over the years. In addition, it is important to note that the research population was university students. As the first meeting place for Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel, universities can make a major contribution to wider society in promoting mutual activities between the groups, which can provide an opening towards establishing social relations grounded on mutual respect, avoidance of stereotypes and prejudice, and significant narrowing of social distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current qualitative study sought to examine how male and female principals enact their instructional leadership. Data were collected through 59 semi-structured interviews with 36 female principals and 23 male principals from Israel, and analysed in a four-stage process--condensing, coding, categorising, and theorising. Findings presented two main differences between male and female principals' instructional leadership: (a) the source of authority nurturing their instructional leadership; and (b) the integration of instructional leadership with principal-teacher relationships. Gender theories were employed to explain these findings and further research possibilities in this realm are discussed.

This study examines the process of judging complex real-life events in Israel: the disengagement from Gush Katif, Rabin's assassination and the Second Lebanon War. The process of judging is based on Weiner's attribution model, (Weiner, 2000, 2006); however, due to the complexity of the events studied, variables were added to characterize the perceived complexity of the event by the judge. The purpose of the study is to examine the connection between complex perception of an event and judgment. For all three events a negative path coefficient was found between the set of perception and the set of cognitive judgment variables (ß = -0.25, p<0.01). In other words, the more complex the perception of an event, the more moderate the judgment, and the less negativity felt towards the actors in the event. These findings are important for educating students to a complex perception of a negative reality.

This paper aims to explore how Palestinian Arab and Jewish university students in Israel, attending a course on conflict resolution, deal with their stereotypical views of the Other and their prejudices, as well as their complex emotions of fear, hate, anxiety, and love during a period of tension and violence. On the one hand, they have a natural desire for professional partnership and friendship with their fellow students. On the other hand, they are attending this class in a Jewish university, in the heart of the Middle East, where acts of terrorism occur almost daily. This violence changes the power structure and the dynamics of their mutual relationships. Through an analysis of a specific case study the paper aims to shed light on how bridging theory and practice can generate a better understanding of complex situations, enabling reflection and developing signposts to improve coping mechanisms within peace education frameworks in times of terror.

In our post-modern, globalised world, there is a risk of unique cultural heritages being lost. This loss contributes to the detriment of civilization, because individuals need to be rooted in their own specific identity in order to actively participate in community life. This article discusses a longitudinal case study of the efforts being made by Australian Jewish schools to maintain Jewish heritage through annual experiential religious education camps, coordinated in a programme called Counterpoint. The researchers' aim was to analyse how a school youth camp can serve as a site for socialisation and education into a cultural and religious heritage through experiential learning and informal education. During research trips which took place over several years, interviews enabling insights into the process of experiential education were conducted with a total of three different Directors of Informal Jewish Education, two Jewish Studies heads, five participating teachers, seven youth leaders, as well as seven student focus groups. In their analysis of the semi-structured interviews, the authors of this article employed a grounded theory approach using a constant comparative method, which enabled a more nuanced understanding of the main phenomenon investigated. Over the years, they were able to observe two philosophical approaches, one of which focused more on socialisation, with immersion into experience, while the other focused on education, with immersion into Jewish knowledge. Their findings reveal that some educators aim to "transmit" knowledge through "evocation", with the students involved in active learning; while others focus more on students' "acquisition" of knowledge through transmission. Experiential learning activities were found to be more meaningful and powerful if they combined both approaches, leading to growth.

This article analyzes how concepts of liberal and progressive Islam, which have been developed in the political and theological academic literature, may inform the curriculum of Islamic education and the practice of religious educators in Islamic schools in the US. We investigate the meaning of in-faith Islamic education and how it can conform to the life in a democratic, multicultural, and multi-faith society. Liberal Islam challenges the transmission-oriented and rigid interpretations of Islam and seeks to appreciate and to contextualize the religious claims which are compatible with ideals of reflective education, rational thinking, mutual respect, and equal citizenship. It suggests that students become critical "consumers" of Islam, its moral and civic purposes, and the cultural politics of religious interrogations.