Complex Contexts and Ideologies: Bilingual Education in Conflict-Ridden Areas

Bilingual education, though acknowledged as having the potential to help overcome a wide variety of societal and cultural tensions, remains controversial and frequently misunderstood. The present study examines the extent to which sociohistorical and political contexts, in conflict-ridden areas, influence language attitudes and the implementation of bilingual educational initiatives geared toward encouraging sociocultural tolerance and the recognition of each of the participating groups while enabling students to become bilingual. More specifically I investigate and document how a particular bilingual Arabic-Hebrew program is interpreted and implemented in an integrated Palestinian-Jewish educational initiative in Israel. The current effort hopes to stimulate educators, parents, and policymakers into thinking about how to develop dual-language programs to address the particular contextual challenges which, when left unaccounted for, can prejudice their bilingual educational efforts.