Multiculturalism and Inter-Faith Understanding at Teaching Colleges in Israel: Minority vs. Majority Perspectives

Abstract

Living in a pluralistic society where groups are ethnically, nationally and religiously different and sometimes live in conflict with one another requires teachers to be prepared to deal with conflict-laden issues. In such societies, educational institutions in general and especially teaching colleges should not be ethnocentric but should acknowledge the experiences, cultures, and histories of different minority groups to educate for multiculturalism and to promote multi-cultural and inter-faith education. For this reason, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the manifestations of multiculturalism and multicultural and inter-faith education in two teaching colleges in Israel, one that belongs to the Arab minority and one that belongs to the Jewish majority. Seven senior staff members of each college were interviewed and asked about the way multiculturalism is demonstrated in their college and how multicultural and inter-faith education are expressed. The findings confirm that multicultural and inter-faith education have not penetrated all realms of activity in the two colleges and the gap existing between preaching multiculturalism and practicing it is still deep.