Bridging the national divide: using e-learning in citizenship education in Israel

One of the major social problems facing Israeli society is the cleavage between the Jewish majority and Arab minority regarding social attitudes towards each other. An Internet-based citizenship and peace education project was implemented in two Israeli high schools in order to contend with this cleavage and to enhance the development of positive attitudes of Jewish and Arab students toward each other. Based on contact theory, a four month weekly e-learning citizenship and peace education project enabled formal and informal interaction between students belonging to the two conflict groups. Results of the study indicate improvement in attitudes of both Jewish and Arab students toward each other with more significant improvement found for students belonging to the Jewish majority. The findings indicate the potential of Internet-based communications to enhance citizenship and peace education as well as positive social attitudes between members of conflict groups.