Background: The existence of many conflicted cities like Jerusalem creates a need for intercultural professional development (PD) for teachers. It is important to understand what teachers learn from their participation in such programs and how they are affected personally and professionally by their encounters with the other. The current study…

Background/Context: Critical education studies tries to make sense of the relationship between education and differential power in an unequal society and to what degree schools impact the social order. A premise in this field is that a fundamental aim of critical education is exposing unequal social, cultural, and economic power relations and…

Background/Context: Emotions often accompany discussions of ethnic matters, yet there have been few sustained investigations in education of how, and with what implications, emotional responses are (de)legitimized in the classroom, especially when conflicting historical narratives are involved. Emotions have remained in the margins of educational…

Background: Great efforts are made to develop and implement contact activities for groups in conflict, yet studies of effects of planned contact interventions yielded mixed results. Previous attempts to explain why contact interventions do not fulfill their promise focused on the contact itself. However, the main focus of the present study was the…

Results of this study indicate that two-thirds of the participants who completed a year in a Jewish-Arab Buberian Learning Group had diminished existential mistrust of members of the other ethnic group. (JN)

Using data from in-depth interviews and participant observation, the paper explores the social and psychological dimensions of a peace-education program for Jewish and Arab students in a small Israeli village. The program stressed conflict resolution and awareness of the need to live together in everyday circumstances while maintaining important…

This article describes the collaborative work of three teachers -- two Arab and one Jewish -- as they taught first grade together in a then new bilingual/bicultural school in Israel. The article is based on an ethnographic study the author conducted at the school during the school's first year (1998-1999), examining in particular the interactions…

Existentialism holds both a promise and a threat for education. The author draws on philosophical insights to explain why Buberian Learning Groups in Israel, composed of Arabs and Jews, foundered after Israel invaded Lebanon. (PP)

Efforts to further education for peace through Buberian Learning Groups, which include Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, are discussed. Participants learn through a dialog that leads them to recognize distortions in their existence and to end their passive acceptance of problems. Organization of the groups and their successes and difficulties are…

This is a commentary on an article about an attempt to use Buberian Learning Groups to promote peace between Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs (Haim Gordon, Jan Demarest, Teachers College Record, Fall 1982). A Muslim who helped evaluate the project discusses strengths and weaknesses of the Education for Peace Project in Israel.(PP)