Sharing Pains in Community-of-Inquiry-Pedagogy in the Arab-Israeli Context

This article seeks to contribute to the discussion of Jewish-Arab dialogue in the Middle East in general and the Israeli-Palestinian context in particular by exploring the adoption of philosophical communities of inquiry pedagogy based on a pedagogy of searching. Briefly reviewing the teaching of history as an example of the problematic pedagogy espoused in the Israeli education system (excluding the West Bank and [occupied] territories) that serves both Jewish and Arab students, it then sets out a model of joint dialogical-search pedagogy designed to construct a “community of equal participants” in a non-egalitarian world in order to strengthen pupils’ civic-democratic foundations. Finally, it discusses the way in which Philosophy with Children with young Jews and Arabs/Palestinians can encourage dialogue that bases mutual understanding on their shared pain rather than a resolution of the national conflict.