Toward Multicultural Environmental Education: The Case of the Arab and Ultraorthodox Sectors in Israel

Abstract

Recent thinking in multicultural education can contribute to environmental education (EE) in culturally diverse societies. This article uses case studies of two minorities in Israel to illustrate the potential for bringing together these two areas of educational research that have developed significantly in recent years. After introducing the topics of EE and multicultural education, we discuss some compelling intersections between them. We then introduce the Arab and ultraorthodox sectors, and describe the ways in which issues of educational contents, representation, resources, and infrastructure affect EE in these sectors. We show how policies and concrete measures for forwarding EE in these groups in a multicultural manner can draw on their specific culture, education systems, and environmental situations.

Keywords:

• Arabs
• education for sustainability
• environmental education policy
• Israel society
• multiculturalism
• multicultural education
• ultraorthodox

Notes

¹It is worth noting that another environmentally related educational field that is emerging in the past two decades is Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Eilam and Trop (2010) show that the relationship between EE and ESD remains contested in the literature, and has been described by different scholars along the whole spectrum from two distinct fields to completely overlapping. In this article we refer to EE in a similar manner as the previous NAAEE definition. We stick to EE in this article since in Israel this is the popular term, with very little usage of the term ESD, or discussion of the differences between the two.

²The acknowledgment of TEK is not unique to the field of sustainability. Science and medicine have always drawn on this knowledge; in fact, there has been a reaction to the appropriation and commercialization of such knowledge that disregards the intellectual property rights of the groups that developed it. For a discussion about TEK and science education, see Snively and Corsiglia, 2000, and Stanley and Brickhouse 2001.

³EE is an intervention program: it aims to change behavior, and fails to achieve its aims if knowledge and awareness are improved without change of behavior (Hungerford & Volk 1998).

⁴While there are clear reasons to jointly consider these two most prominent minority “cultures” as a case study, we would not want to reinforce the stereotyped “othering” of them with respect to the Israeli mainstream, nor deny their internal diversity.

⁵As emphasized in the popular idiom from the Ethics of the Fathers: “Who is rich? One who is satisfied with what he has.”

⁶The religious commandments are divided into those Bein Adam LaMakom (between man and God) and Bein Adam LeChavero (between people and their fellows).