Can Common Denominators Be Controversial? Jewish and Muslim Students' Reactions to Learning About Interfaith Relations

• In Event: Intervening to Tackle Polarization in and Through Education: What Paradigms, What Merits?

Abstract

Objectives or purposes

1) Outline the ways Israeli teachers coped with teaching the history Islam, Muslim-Jewish relations and interfaith influences, as a controversial issue during a violent conflict.
2) Trace the effects of encounter with interfaith similarities on Jewish and Muslim students’ intergroup attitudes.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Under the general climate of the “war on terror” and fears of Muslim immigration, Islam and its history have become sensitive and controversial issues in the eyes of teachers internationally (Goldberg, Wagner, & Petrović, 2019). Studying an outgroups’ cultural and intergroup relations while reflecting on intergroup similarities may also bring about a sense of a common overarching identity, reducing prejudice and intergroup anxiety (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2014). It is crucial that teachers cope with their students’ resistance to teaching about Islam and Jewish Muslim commonalities, especially in Israel’s context of tense, at times violent, interfaith relations (Goldberg, 2020). Such educational endeavors beg inquiry, as encounter with intergroup similarity might not just arouse common-identity and ensuing positive changes. It may also evoke the need for optimal distinctiveness and arouse rejection (Leonardelli, Pickett, & Brewer, 2010).

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

This is a mixed method action research. 9 teachers who volunteered to teach Islam in their classrooms created and taught the History of Islam curriculum for a minimum of two weeks.
Students were Jewish and Muslim 7th graders in one private and six public schools. The study was approved by an internal review board and the Israeli Ministry of education
Students filled intergroup attitudes questionnaires prior to and following the History of Islam teaching units. They also wrote their reactions to various curricular activities.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials

Teacher interviews
Questionnaire data
Students’ written reactions

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

Students showed initial anxiety and resistance to studying about Islam and to evidence of Muslim influence on Jewish identity. However, this was overcome as teaching progressed. Teachers reported an array of strategies, mainly making connections with students’ family heritage and religious experiences, empathetic engagement with historical religious figures, and intellectual distancing.
Questionnaire results showed a decline in negative stereotypes and social distancing for Jewish students following studying the topic. A result which, surprisingly, was amplified among students from right wing affiliated families. By contrast, Muslim students showed no change or slight negative changes.
We conclude that for majority students, encounter with interfaith similarities, while threatening at first, may help facilitating common-identity and prejudice reduction. For minority students, intergroup similarity may pose a higher identity threat and a compromise of optimal distinctiveness. Hence teachers should tread cautiously and perhaps use more affirmation strategies in this context.
A replication-extension study among Muslim students is in progress to explore the validity of the conclusions.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

This is a rare study comparing the effects of studying interfaith similarities on Muslim and Jewish (generally Non-Muslim) among school age students. Practices for dealing with this teaching challenge could serve teachers worldwide.

Author

• Tsafrir Goldberg, University of Haifa