Ethnic Composition, School Ideology, and Boundaries between Arabs and Jewish Students

• Applicant: Dr. Lars Leszczensky
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 427162036

This project intends to study how school factors shape different dimensions of group boundaries between Arab and Jewish youth in Israel. While schools are seen as a prime context in which social relationships, mutual attitudes, identities and cultural lifestyles are formed, we do not know much about if and how specific school factors affect group boundaries. Focusing on two important school factors, we aim to study if and how ethnic school composition and schools’ ideological orientation concerning ethnic relations shape the boundaries between Arab and Jewish youth in Israel. We address three dimensions of boundaries: social relationships and mutual attitudes, lifestyles, and identification.Achieving our overarching goal of improving our understanding of the role of schools for shaping group boundaries requires longitudinal data of Arab and Jewish students attending different schools. Since such data are currently not available, their collection is a necessary intermediate goal of our project. We thus propose to collect three waves of longitudinal data on students attending Israeli schools that differ in their ethnic composition and ideological orientation towards Arab-Jewish relations. Specifically, we intend to measure Arab and Jewish students’ identifications, lifestyles and cross-ethnic (Arab-Jewish) attitudes and social relationships, as well as change therein over time.Based on this unique dataset, we then will address three research objectives. First, we will describe and explain how and why group boundaries differ between students attending different types of schools and schools with different levels of ethnic composition. Second, we will examine the development of group boundaries over time, considering both age differences and increased tenure in school. Third, we will disentangle the dynamic interrelations of the different dimensions of group boundaries, thus considering possible mutual effects of the different dimensions of boundaries.Our project seeks to make three important contributions to research on interethnic relations and integration. First, it will improve our understanding of Arab-Jewish relations among youth attending different types of schools in Israel. Second, by increasing our understanding of the Israeli case we will also deepen the understanding of how group boundaries are shaped by schools in multi-ethnic societies in general and conflicted societies in particular. Finally, by focusing on school factors, our project adds to scholarship on the formation of ethnic boundaries among students attending different schools. Schools and policies that reduce ethnic boundaries in Israel – a case of extreme conflict - are likely useful in other societies negotiating multiple identities.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Israel
• International Co-Applicants: Professor Yossi Shavit, Ph.D.; Professor Uri Shwed, Ph.D.