The 1948 war created a new situation in Palestine. Palestinians became dispersed across political borders that had not existed before, and these borders continued to change in different ways into the 21st century. In many respects, these political borders have had notable linguistic effects, introducing bilingualism and multilingualism for some…

The current study was part of a large project focusing on bilingual development in the preschool classroom context. Its aim was to theorize free play as a social and language learning activity that provides opportunities for young learners to move towards second language production. The role of free play for language development in general, and…

This paper reports on a study that examined a Shared Education program recently implemented in Israel based on the Northern Ireland model. Sixth-grade children from two schools -- one Jewish and one Arab, who study in separate education systems and have very limited contacts with one another -- met to learn English (as an additional language)…

In Israel, the awareness on the youth dropout from school problem has increased in the last decade. There is no doubt that dealing with this phenomenon poses a challenge to the Israeli society and to the authorities responsible for educational services. It turns out that certain groups among the Israeli population are at a higher risk of dropping…

Achievement goal theory is one of the major theories of the relationship between learners' perception of learning processes and their academic achievements. The present research was focused on the relationship between learners' goals and the academic achievements of Hebrew-speaking students, who belong to the majority group, and Arabic-speaking…

Multicultural environments in academic institutions face major challenges in teaching, learning, and social integration. Although the number of Arab students attending institutions of higher education in Israel has increased, the Arabic language has little presence in the Israeli academic world. This article explores the results of teaching Arab…

Israel's Education Ministry invited proposals for the development of a new multilingual policy for the country's education system. We submitted a proposal for an 'engaged language policy' approach, which helps schools to conceptualize and develop a policy that best fits them ideologically and demographically. This study aimed to map teachers' and…

The goal of this study is to gain a better understanding of the experiences of Palestinian-Israeli minority teachers when teaching at majority state Hebrew secular schools in Israel. Specifically, the objective is to describe and analyze the role of the teachers' work-related experiences in shaping their sense of self-efficacy, job satisfaction,…

Teacher leadership development receives considerable attention in many educational reforms across the globe. This article reports on a unique partnership in Jerusalem that brings Israeli and Palestinian educators together to cultivate teacher leaders who facilitate professional communities and support continual improvement in teaching and…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between the distribution of educational funds allocated by the central government and the educational achievement distribution (EAD) at the primary school level. To this end, the extent of equity in education funding, and the extent of the equality of educational opportunity (EEO) in the…

In this paper, we describe an educational initiative which is a study-unit for kindergarten: "Development and nurturing awareness of the existence of the Arab 'other' and the existence of the Jewish 'other' by means of the arts at the preschool level". The unit was written as part of my graduate studies for the M. Ed. degree at the…

This study was conducted within the context of bilingual Arabic-Hebrew medium preschools in Israel which were established to incorporate instruction in the native languages of both majority and minority children in the classroom. Bilingual education in various settings produces a wide variety of outcomes in terms of language proficiency, cultural…

The aim of the research has been to evaluate the contribution of the genre of bilingual literature, Arabic and Hebrew, to citizenship education. Since the Israeli society is a multicultural society comprised of both nations, Arabs and Jews who live in conflicted environment, one must regard those textbooks as civic agents. Literature is a…

The aim of this chapter is to point to the complexities of the English language in Israel from a critical perspective, its global language status, and the manners in which it affects and interacts with a variety of local issues. The main focus is on how the presence of a global language, like English, affects a given sociolinguistic reality,…

The aim of this research has been to evaluate the contribution of the emerging Israeli genre of bilingual literature, Arabic and Hebrew, to peace education. Since Israeli society is a multicultural one comprised of two nations, Arabs and Jews who live in an environment of conflict, one must regard those textbooks as political socialization agents.…