Israeli and Palestinian Teachers’ Self-Reported Motivations for Teaching Religion: An Exploratory Case Study

Abstract

The teaching of religion raises opportunities to reduce prejudicial beliefs and attitudes among students. In this study, 30 religion, history, and civics teachers in Israel, East Jerusalem, and the Palestinian Territories were interviewed about their motivations for teaching religion. This study found that teachers expressed a variety of motivations, some of which complemented and some of which conflicted with best practices in prejudice reduction. The study concludes that there is an unrealized opportunity to help teachers approach their teaching with tools that can reduce prejudice, and recommends several such tools.