Education in a plural society or multicultural education? The views of Israeli Arab and Jewish school counselors

Abstract

We suggest that in societies with highly complex and conflictual cultural diversity, different perceptions of pluralism and multiculturalism are likely to be related to divergent expectations for multicultural education. Our study examines—through semi‐structured interviews—the perceptions of cultural pluralism and multicultural education among 37 Israeli school counselors from two national groups—Arabs and Jews. Our findings suggest that the majority‐minority context largely determines the counselors’ views of multiculturalism: Arab counselors focus primarily on the Arab‐Jewish divide which places them within the unprivileged minority, whereas the Jewish counselors equate multiculturalism primarily with the approach toward Jewish immigrants who belong to their own ethnic/national group. Counselors’ responses seem to reflect their national and school organizational cultures, and it is suggested that training institutions should provide them with the knowledge, values and skills to make them culturally proficient and enable them to become agents of educational and social change.