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The paper discusses the collective identity of the Palestinian citizens of Israel as it is filtered to school students through the state-commissioned school textbooks. Since it was established in 1948, Israel has maintained two separate education systems, one for Palestinian-Israelis, who are now ∼ 20% of the population, and the other for Jewish Israelis. Each system has its own curriculum, transmitting its own cultural and national messages. This paper compares Palestinian school textbooks (grades 5-12) currently in use to earlier textbooks of the 1960s. The analysis shows how the segregated school system for Palestinians in Israel forges a mechanism of domination of the national history and collective memory of the Palestinians. Through processes of exclusion and selection, the state narrative, as it is manifested in the Palestinian school textbooks, renders the Palestinian identity non-existent and rootless. Palestinians are presented as a collective detached from their past and from their immediate surroundings in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the implementation of an external written curriculum in the classroom. The study is based on observation of and interviews with 26 Israeli Bible teachers who followed a formal curriculum and used a teachers' guide. The study identified three types of curriculum narrative: the frame narrative, the task narrative, and the meta-narrative. Whereas both curriculum writers and teachers were conscious of the existence of the frame and task narratives, neither group was aware of the existence of the curriculum meta-narrative. Moreover, most teachers felt no obligation to adhere to the curriculum writers' frame narrative and suggested curriculum activities, and, indeed, some 80% of the curriculum tasks analysed in this study were devised by teachers, not suggested by curriculum writers. Teachers were also unaware of the curriculum writers' meta-narrative and constructed their own meta-narratives, which differed almost completely from that of the writers. This study reveals that the conception of teachers as 'obedient' to a written curriculum, which they interpret and adapt while preserving its essential principles, is inconsistent with the teachers' own curriculum thinking. That thinking, founded on narrative thought, understands both curriculum and teaching as revealed stories which are used as a source of stimulation and inspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the predominance of the nation-state as the sole arbiter of curricular matters has eroded. New actors and organizations, especially local schools, have acquired greater discretion over the definition of school subjects and curricular emphases. This study investigates whether and how different patterns of educational governance influence the actual curriculum that local schools put into place. It is argued that uniformity/diversity in the implemented curriculum reflects macro-level factors (i.e. structural and institutional characteristics of national educational systems), and meso-level factors (i.e. community and local school characteristics). Specifically, it investigates between-school variation in curricular implementation in two major sectors of the Israeli public educational system: Jewish (secular), and Arab. School-based differences are reported in course offerings and time-allocations to subject areas in each sector. In addition, it compares actual curricular implementation in relation to official guidelines established by central authorities. Implementation patterns between and within sectors are discussed in light of educational governance differences and key macro- and local-level factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]