English language as a means of shared education

Only some aspects of the subject of civic education are included in the curricula of grades 2-4 in the form of the subject "Homeland and Society." For grades 7-9, a civics curriculum has been developed, but this subject is optional, and its inclusion in the curriculum depends on the decision of school principals. Civics is taught in only one third of secondary schools, in the seventh or eighth grade, for one hour a week. Consequently, many students graduate from secondary school without studying it."Citizenship" becomes a compulsory school subject only in the senior grades, an examination in this discipline for a certificate of maturity is compulsory for all students in the eleventh or twelfth grade. There are three hours a week to study the subject, but this is more common in Jewish public schools than in Arab and religious public schools. The neglect of "Citizenship" as an academic subject is also evident in the results of the matriculation exams. Grades in this discipline have been the lowest of any other school subject in the humanities and social sciences in recent years. In general, students in Jewish public schools perform better on democracy-building examinations than students in religious and Arab schools.It should be noted, however, that in Israel, civic education through formal schooling is not the only activity associated with civic education. There are a large number of events, programs and training materials organized and developed by the Department of Youth and Society Affairs and the Democracy Department of the Israeli Ministry of Education. In addition, non-profit organizations such as the Adam Institute, the Israel Civil Rights Society, the Van Leer Institute, the Jewish Zionist Institute and the Rabin Center for Peace, among others, develop educational materials and organize programs in schools aimed at promoting communication between Jewish and Arab youth, and between religious and non-religious Jewish students.Students in the tenth grade are offered a program called Personal Commitment - Working for the Good of Society, for participation in which a high school diploma is awarded. There are also pilot programs in individual municipal secondary schools, the leadership of which creates special conditions for the formation of civic engagement in students. For example, in the municipal Arab school of Galilee, the director of which is the author of this article, a unique educational program for Israel called "Civil Initiative" was developed and operates. It is based on a project-based methodology, aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship and active citizenship. Her motto was the phrase "You are the master of your own destiny."The development and implementation of the pilot program "Civic Initiative" is carried out under the auspices of the Department of Experiments and Innovations of the Pedagogical Secretariat of the Ministry of Education of Israel. Much attention is paid to this experiment, since in the future it is planned to distribute this educational program in the system of secondary education in Israel. The new program aims to expand competencies in the field of civic culture and civic engagement. Our experiment is focused on developing methods to increase the personal responsibility of the student, teachers and parents for what is happening in society. The aforementioned motto “You are the master of your own destiny” is reflected in the changed teaching methods (“different teaching”), the creation of a unified team of parents, teachers and students (“different parental involvement”), in greater independence and responsibility of students (“different behavior of students ").The upbringing of civic culture is carried out in training sessions in the discipline "Civics", as well as on an interdisciplinary basis: the topics and problems of civic education are included in the content of education in social sciences, ecology, history, communication, and English. The educational process includes group research work, which is carried out by the method of creative dialogue. The goal that schools in Israel have always strived for is to nurture a caring, influential and transformative personality. In the Galilee school, special attention is paid to the dialogue with the "world of adults", i.e. with teachers, school leaders, parents and representatives of various municipal institutions with whom students come into contact while working on socially significant projects - “projects of civic engagement”.The “Civic Engagement Project” reveals to the student the complexity and versatility of the world close to him - the school where he studies, the cities and regions where he lives. Voluntary involvement in the implementation of civic initiatives based on their own intrinsic motivation gives adolescents self-confidence. In the process of project activities, students hear different opinions, different life stories, encounter people of different ages, different lifestyles, with different health opportunities. The holistic process of civic education presented by us contributes to the formation of civic qualities in students and introduces them to the world of diversity and democracy.2.2 SHARED EDUCATION IN SOCIETEES INVOLVED IN INTRACTABLE CONLICTThis study explored the potential for a Shared Education project in Israel with Jews and Arabs studying English together, both in terms of the languages used – English as a foreign language, the two mother tongues, and the language of the ‘other’ – and in terms of developing tolerance toward the other. In each group, proficiency levels in the other language differ, with Arab students far more proficient in Hebrew than Jewish students in Arabic. In this context, translanguaging seems necessary in order to bridge language gaps, with English as a possible option and Arabic speakers potentially bringing in Arabic as well. Translanguaging, which is expected in this setting, could suggest insights on language use and on the ability of language shifts to represent, and perhaps to create different power relations. Thus, the general research question was: How did the different languages manifest themselves, by whom and for what purposes?The study took place in a mixed city in central Israel, socioeconomically below the average (40th percentile; ICBS 2018). It involved two schools, one Jewish and one Arab, which are located on either side of a wall.3 The Shared Education program was initiated via the Center of Educational Technology – an Israeli NGO that linked the Centre for Shared Education in Northern Ireland, the Ministry of Education and the municipality. The latter two were specifically interested in the English project since this city was designated by the Ministry of Education to receive additional support due to students’ poor achievements on national English exams (field notes 6/4/2018). As in the Northern Ireland model, the initiative is meant to be gradually transferred to the school principals and the teachersThe program described in this article was designed for sixth-grade students. A detailed research design, not yet applied in previous studies that have so far explored Shared Education, was established after meetings – first of the principals and then of the teachers – devoted to discussions and preparation of pedagogical content as well as to interpersonal encounters between the students. Altogether, there were five meetings of ninety-minutes lessons each, over a fourmonth period in 2018. Each class numbered about twenty students. English proficiency levels were heterogeneous in both groups. In both schools, children started to learn English as a foreign language at grade 2, using the same textbooks; however, despite studying English for the fifth year, both teachers reported that many of their students had great difficulties in communicating in English, especially the Arab students. The Arab group (henceforth A) had only Arab students and the Jewish group (J) included one Arab student. The overall atmosphere among the students was open and positive. Still, the Arab students were more quiet and introverted, even when the meetings took place at their school. In the Jewish group, some worries were expressed before the meetings began, mainly echoing their parents’ words concerning the Jewish-Palestinian violence incidents that are portrayed on Israeli media – which go beyond the local context of this mixed city. At the first meeting, the students sat in separate groups. At the following sessions, the teachers proactively set up a mixed-group seating arrangement that was widely accepted. Recess activities involved no intervention and/or attendance of teachers. During all sessions, both teachers and students initiated spontaneous joint activities. At the third session, students were required to present their group work in front of the whole class, a task that, especially for the Arab students, proved very challenging. After this event, teachers felt a dramatic decrease in the students’ motivation to go on attending meetings. In response, the teachers diverged from the original planning and devoted most of the next session to joint activities in the schoolyard that included English-language tasks as well as a joint soccer game with boys against girls (that is, mixing schools). This response had a significant impact on the students’ dynamics, and the motivation to continue participating in the program increased. Classroom sessions included a wide range of pair and group activities, with which students tended to cooperate.According to the results of the experiment, the following was revealed.This study considered a Shared Education program that brought together Jewish and Arab students to learn English, examining its potential both from a multilingual perspective and as a setting that can promote tolerance between groups. The findings showed that the program lead to rich interaction between the three languages, mainly among the teachers but also among the students who, when necessary, activated their full language repertoires. The teachers’ and the students’ move between the languages resulted in a wide range of pedagogic and social outcomes – some of which are planned and others more spontaneous – arising from the complexity of the setting. A clear gap emerged between the mother tongues, in favor of Hebrew. Some of the Arab students identified Hebrew’s intense presence as an opportunity rather than merely an indication of their mother tongue’s weakness. In time, this gap may become more balanced, with Arab children feeling more comfortable to use their mother tongue and all students using more English with one another.We believe that social and educational training is an effective means of developing social competence. It promotes personal change, which becomes life skills to be successful.CONCLUSIONIn conclusion, it should be noted that the problem of multicultural education has recently become particularly relevant and has attracted the attention of not only teachers, but also specialists in the field of psychology, ethnology, political science, history, ethno-state studies and others. However, with the growing interest in this problem, more and more undisclosed phenomena, processes that need to be studied, are revealed. So, the prospect of our further research is the problem of multicultural education of future teachers.Thus, social competence is an integral concept that contributes to the successful socialization of a teenager. Educational work on the development of social competence in a multicultural environment will be effective when using methods aimed at ethnocultural education. The use of project activities, the conduct of social and pedagogical trainings, the content of which is determined by ethnocultural components, is effective.Younger adolescence seems to be sensitive for the development of social competence, since it is an important period for the individual. The social competence of adolescents contributes to their successful socialization.BIBLIOGRAPHYBelogurovA.Yu. The factor of multiculturalism in the context of the ethno-national strategy for the development of Russian education // Problems of multicultural education: collection of scientific papers. articles. 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