Multiculturalism, Conflict, and Struggle: Place as Meeting Ground in Israeli Education

What sense of place can be elaborated in a setting marked by conflicting historical narratives, competing claims to “native” status, wide-ranging cultural diversity, and varying degrees of privilege in society? How does this impact on the lives and work of teachers in particular? These questions could be asked in many sites around the world; they arise for me with particular force in Israel, a country that sees itself as both Jewish and democratic, and in an educational system that celebrates some aspects of the country’s multicultural diversity while it ignores or silences other aspects. In this chapter I examine these issues through a close reading of stories told by Jewish and Palestinian teachers and student teachers, and vignettes of education experience in which I have participated. I consider the diverse ways of narrating a sense of place that seem to be possible in the Israeli setting, and explore some of the implications of this narrative diversity for understanding the complex educational situation that it represents and the opportunities for intervening in it.