School–Family partnership for coexistence (SFPC) in the City of acre: Promoting arab and jewish parents’ role as facilitators of children’s literacy development and as agents of coexistence

A two-year (1998–2000) School–Family Partnership for Coexistence (SFPC) programme was implemented in Acre, a mixed Jewish-Arab city in Israel, to promote parents' role as facilitators of their children literacy development and to empower parents to advance coexistence and inter-group relations. The SFPC program was part of a five-year (1995–2000) holistic project, designed to bring about a systemic change in Acre. Two studies are presented. In the first (1999), 174 Arab parents and 111 Jewish parents of first-grade children responded to a 31 item Parents' Literacy Questionnaire (Horovitz & Hertz-Lazarowitz, 1998). In addition, interviews were conducted with mothers, teachers, and children. The questionnaire yielded seven factors related to home literacy and learning environment, and to School-Family Partnership. Findings indicated that Arab parents perceived themselves as more effective facilitators of literacy development of their children than Jewish parents. In the second study (2000), 120 Arab parents and 30 Jewish parents responded to a Parents' Inter-group Coexistence Questionnaire. The 34 items related to five domains: parents' exposure to media in Hebrew and Arabic; parents' acceptance of Arabs' definitions of identity; readiness for relations; contact; and equality demands. In comparison to the Jewish parents, the Arab parents were found to perceive themselves as more effective facilitators of coexistence. The discussion focuses on the gains of the holistic educational project for the parents, and for the children within the multinational, multicultural and multi-language community.