The classroom as a meeting place of identities and cultures

In a joint initiative, Merchavim together with the Ministry of Education, the New School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya and the Office of the Prime Minister, held a conference on April 29th focusing on Arab teacher integration into Jewish schools titled: ‘The classroom as a meeting place of identities and cultures’. This conference dealt with the psychological dilemmas and other aspects related to Arab teacher integration in Jewish schools.

This conference is one in a series related to Merchavim’s ‘500 Arab Teachers in Jewish Schools‘ program. In this program, excelling Arab teachers are employed in Jewish schools, not only as Arabic teachers, but as English, Math and Science teachers – filling the existing shortage of teachers in these three subjects. Additionally, this creates an inter-cultural exchange and a more diverse, inclusive educational experience for the Jewish teachers, students and parents.

Over the past six years, this project has been developed by Merchavim, and in the past two years it has been adopted by the Ministry of Education and the Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab Sector at the Prime Minister’s Office. This project comes as a response to the “market failure” of the Israeli education system, in which there are thousands of unemployed certified Arab teachers on the one hand, and a shortage of teachers in the public Jewish education system on the other. Since the program’s existence, 91 Arab teachers have been integrated into Jewish schools, and a total of 160 Arab teachers are currently teaching in the Jewish school system.

The conference included representatives of all participating bodies: Aiman Saif, Director of the Authority, and Eyal Ram, Head of the Teachers’ Administration Unit at the Ministry of Education – both highlighted the importance of this project to the government and their offices’ commitment to continue and even enhance its implementation.

Aiman Saif stressed that this project is also part of a wider effort to enhance the number of Arab employees in government offices as well as in the the civil service, and that today this number is at an all-time high of 9.5% (still short of 20% representation and even short of the government’s own decision to reach 10% by 2012).

President Rivlin, who could not attend the conference, sent a recorded video greeting stating that, “The wonderful project of Arab teacher integration in Jewish schools expresses the recognition, in my opinion, that shared life here has a purpose and is a blessing, not God forbid, a curse. Daily encounters between Arabs and Jews is the natural and correct way to establish a life of partnership and respect between all citizens of the state. Shared citizenship, in which diversity is a nor a barrier but a tool for empowerment of citizens and the basis for a just society.”