‘Actualiya learning’: a bottom-up construction for civic education in two of Israel’s ‘educational Islands’

Abstract

ABSTRACT Contemporary literature reveals that many educators, especially those in elementary schools and in conflict-effected societies, are reluctant to engage in the teaching of current public issues, even more so social controversies. However, this qualitative study examined the successful experience and the perspectives of educators from two elementary schools in Israel who avoided the tendency to bypass these issues and instead embraced them within the framework of ‘Actualiya’ learning. They also trained their students to search for controversy, to identify its rational and emotional origins, to spend time seeking their own opinions and to accommodate the tensions it evoked. The cumulative effect of containing the tension the controversy evoked fostered a complex experience of democratic citizenship with particular and universal affinities. This research enabled us to learn inductively about the pedagogical principles required for an updated civic education instruction in politically challenged societies.