Students’ perceptions of global citizenship at a local and an international school in Israel

Abstract

This article reports on a comparative study revealing students’ perceptions and conceptualisations of global citizenship in two different educational settings in Israel, a country facing long-lasting violent conflict between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. Jewish Israeli students attending a public Israeli school and students at an international school located in Israel catering to a Jewish, Palestinian and international clientele participated in this exploratory qualitative study, which involved in-depth interviews and focus groups with students from both a local and an international school. Four major themes emerged through the analysis: (1) inclusion and exclusion criteria for the term ‘global citizen’; (2) the tensions between the different dimensions of global citizenship; (3) schools’ agency in educating towards global citizenship; and (4) the role of global citizenship in conflict resolution. The main contribution of this study lies in its comparative perspective that enables us to discern the different impacts of the Israeli context on the perceptions of global citizenship in different types of schools.