Interfaith education in Muslim, Jewish, Christian schools in Israel

The paper critically approaches the western epistemological tradition and its psychologized perspectives that pose identitarian and cultural categories as standing at the basis of societal conflicts. It suggests that staying attached to a conceptualization of identity as a, more or less, fixed cognizant entity and of culture as a, rather, fixed body of traditions and meaning might not allow multicultural, interfaith, or peace education initiatives geared towards soothing societal conflicts achieve their goals. It does so by reviewing data gathered at the integrated bilingual and multicultural schools in Israel which I have been studying for over a decade utilizing a variety of ethnographic tools. It concludes by locating the problems exposed within present social sciences theorizing and suggest possible ways to overcome these problems.