New School University doctoral student Zohar Rotem, under the supervision of Dr. Lawrence Hirschfeld, will conduct research on how Israeli children develop their internalized social categories of "Jew" and "Arab." Social category distinctions, manifested in beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, are often taken for granted. Nevertheless, they are learned distinctions and it is not well understood how that learning takes place. The researcher will focus attention on how children incorporate these socially prescribed distinctions to make meaning in their daily lives, examining how such beliefs are taught as well as learned.
The research will be conducted in Israel, in a bilingual/bicultural school for Jewish and Arab students, and outside the school, in children's homes and the wider community. The researcher will construct an ethnographic description of children's lives in these settings. In addition, experimental methods, adapted from cognitive-developmental psychology, will be used to assess children's beliefs (e.g., about the degree to which these ethno-national categories are "natural") that children otherwise have difficulty articulating.
This research is both timely and important, as it will shed light on the ways in which ethno-national differences, in the context of violent and intractable ethnic conflict, emerge in children's lives and are reproduced in society. The research will also inform the work of educators as they seek to alleviate inter-group tensions and enmity.
