Democracy, Religion and Civic Education Among Religious Zionist Female Adolescents in Israel

• In Event: Cross-national perspectives on schooling and religious identities within institutions and individuals

Proposal

Introduction
The aim of this qualitative research is to investigate how religious Zionist female adolescents ( N=40) construct and deconstruct their perceptions of democracy, in the context of intensive National-Orthodox socialization in the State Religious Education system in Israel. Religious Zionism is a branch of Zionism which merges the Zionist revolutionary ethos with traditional Jewish religious practice and beliefs ( Rapaport et al. 1995, Gross,2013, Gross,2017). It preserves Jewish law yet is open to modernity; it makes use of contemporary technology and patters of thinking, while maintaining a religious way of life. Religious Zionists are a very active segment of the Jewish Israeli population. They make up the absolute majority of the population on the West Bank, and are characterized by strong right-wing leanings on the Israeli political system, advocating for Israeli control of the disputed territories conquered in 1967 and opposing advancement of the a potential peace deal with Palestinians. Having their own unique separate school system, they are able to mobilize thousands of their members for right-wing-oriented political activism. State Religious Education (SRE) is an ideological education system whose aim is educate toward religious-Zionist ideology and identity, through a distinctive curriculum, school climate and the ideological orientation. SRE schools socialize their students to this specific ideology and way of life.
The study
In order to examine how the religious school system copes with these questions through the eyes of its graduates, a study was carried out among female graduates of diverse high schools in the SRE. The participants were asked to address, retrospectively, the socialization they experienced during their high school education, how that socialization constructed their attitude to democracy, and the nature of the school’s democratic rhetoric.
The research sample consisted of 40 graduates of Israeli religious high schools, both more elite, selective, and religiously rigorous ulpanot as well as more lax, less selective, and less religiously rigorous comprehensive religious high schools. Participants were randomly chosen by their supervisors in their second year of National Service (20) or IDF service (20).
The Ulpana graduates (M=4.80) in this sample defined themselves as more religious than the high school graduates (M=4.53). Those who served in the army defined themselves as less religious (M=4.35) than those who served in the national service (M=5.00). This difference was found to be significant, and much of the analysis below will revolve around the differences between ulpana graduates and those of the comprehensive schools.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted in which subjects were asked how they look back at their education at school as far as matters of religion and democracy are concerned. .
While comparing two distinct groups, the interviews were analyzed according to the constant comparative method (Strauss, 1987). In the initial stage of analysis, recurring topics were identified, of which the principle ones were the tension between democracy and Jewish law and the encounter between politics and religion. Through axial coding, the following categories and concepts were identified: The Land of Israel, the State of Israel, national identity, civic identity, particularistic versus universalistic discourse. The final stage involved creating a category-based theoretical structure linked with the professional literature (neo-traditionalism, modern orthodoxy, participatory democracy, representative democracy), and developing an empirically corroborated theory.

Main Findings
The analysis illustrates a particularistic exclusionary discourse in most of the schools, which is in some cases confronted by the more open and pluralistic girls who function within the tension between regulation and resistance and hold theology of liberation ( McLaren, , . Following Liebman's (1982) theory, four basic adaptation strategies were elicited: rejection, adaptation, compartmentalization and expansion. This typology was not sufficient to describe the population in relation to the research question; hence, a fifth strategy was added (containment) which employs liberation theology ( McLaren, in the broadest of terms which impacts the political arena, education, economics, culture and social realities. This strategy is one that is filtered in such a way that looks to build up , to live together, to engage, all in an inclusive ecumenical spirit. It looks to build dialogue, collaboration, in order to foster the building of humanity and somehow work in such a way that respects differences, diversity, yet live in unity.
Analysis of the democratic discourse of the participants reveals a tension between participatory and representative democracy. Though all the participants used the word “democracy,” two basic approaches could be seen: the more religious participants endorsed participatory democracy whereas the less religious girls emphasized their universal civic identity and showed more of an inclination toward representative democracy.
Conclusions and implications
Democratic education in SRE should teach students to distinguish between these two modes of democracy so that the minority will not attempt to impose its views on the majority and recognize that no group represents the view of all citizens.
The multiplicity of perspectives expressed by the participants in relation to their attitude toward democracy shows the value of employing what Yuval-Davis (1999) calls “transversal citizenship” – recognizing other identities alongside the preservation of a group’s uniqueness and particularistic needs and simultaneously negotiating and engaging in dialogue with other competing identities that exist around them. Adopting this approach could help SRE become more relevant to a larger student body and to adapt itself to the 21st century.
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Author

• Zehavit Gross, Bar Ilan University