Abstract
Even though religion plays a central role in many people’s lives, it is often omitted from citizenship education in secularized societies. Educational scholars have increasingly demanded that teaching about religion should be included in citizenship curricula to foster effective participation for all citizens. However, this is an enormous challenge, especially in societies like Israel where religion is politicized as an aspect of violent conflict. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Palestinian Muslim educators in Israel, we explored how citizenship teachers refer to Islam in their citizenship lessons. The teachers in our study drew on Islam as an important resource to either resist predominant conceptions of citizenship education in Israel or to make the subject more meaningful and relevant to their students. We argue that incorporating religious epistemologies alongside critical pedagogies in the citizenship curriculum is a necessary educational task in diverse and conflict-affected societies like Israel.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Education, Citizenship and Social Justice |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to thank the teachers who participated in our study and the dedicated students who helped us with the interviews. We also want to extend our gratitude to the Walter Lebach Institute for the Study of Jewish-Arab Coexistence at the TelAviv University for funding this study.
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The study was supported by a research grant from The Walter Lebach Institute for the Study of Jewish-Arab Coexistence.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords
- citizenship education
- counter-hegemony
- Islam
- lived religion
- Palestinian citizens of Israel
- third space
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
